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REESE  LIBRARY 

OF  THB 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 
Class 


PICTURES    IN 
THE    TATE    GALLERY 


By  permission  of  the  Autotype  Company, 

74,  Ne^  Oxford  Street,  London. 


ECCE  ANCILLA  DOMINI. 

DANTK    GABRIEL    R08SZTTI. 


PICTURES 


IN  THE 


TATE  GALLERY 


BY 


C.  GASQUOINE   HARTLEY 

AirrMoa  of  "  a  recoko  of  sfanish  fainting,"  "  stokies  of  early  mitish  heroes  ' 

"THt    WRATtR't    SHUTTLt,"    rfC. 


WITH   MANY   ILLUSTRATIONS 


NEW   YORK 

E.    p.    DUTTON    AND    CO. 

31  West  Twenty-Third  Street 
1905 


Printed  in  Great  Britain 


^y   Sister    and   'Brother 

E.   ef   T.  WILSON 

THIS   "BOOK 

Is   affectionately  and  gratefully  inscribed 


1  ^M.^'i;; 


f?c.^se 


CONTENTS 


CHAP.  ■'AOB 

I.    INTRODUCTORY:    THE   FORMATION  OF  THE  COLLEC- 
TION  AND  THE   BUILDING   OF  THE   GALLERY       .         I 

IL   THE    GENRE    AND    HISTORICAL    PAINTERS    OF    THE 

EARLY  VICTORIAN   ERA 13 

IIL   THE   EARLY   LANDSCAPE   PAINTERS 27 

IV.   LANDSCAPE   PAINTERS:    GEORGE   VICAT  COLE   (1833- 

1893);   JOHN   MACWHIRTER   (BoRN    1839)    ...       39 

V.  THE  FORERUNNERS  OF  THE  PRE-RAPHAELITE  RE- 
VIVAL: WILLIAM  DYCE  (1806- 1864);  J.  F.  LEWIS 
(1805-1876);    FORD   MADOX    BROWN   (1821-1893)        .      49 

VI.   THE    PRE-RAPHAELITES:    GABRIEL   CHARLES   DANTE 

ROSSETTI  (1828-1882) 63 

VIL  THE  PRE-RAPHAELITES:  SIR  JOHN  EVERETT  MILLAIS 

(1829-1896) TJ 

VIIL  THE  PRE-RAPHAELITE   DISCIPLES 91 

IX.    IMAGINATIVE     ART:     GEORGE     FREDERICK     WATTS 

(1817-1904) 99 

X.   CLASSIC    ART:    ALBERT    MOORE   (1841-1893),    ALFRED 

STEVENS  (1817-1875) 115 

XL  CLASSICAL  ART:  FREDERIC  LORD  LEIGHTON  (1830- 
1896);  SIR  LAURENCE  ALMA-TADEMA  (BORN  1836); 
SIR  EDWARD  J.   POYNTER   (Born    1836)     .        .        .127 

vii  b 


CONTENTS 


CHAP.  PAOE 

XII.  POETIC  ART:  FREDERICK  WALKER  (1840-1875)  ; 
GEORGE  HEMING  MASON  (1818-1873);  JOHN 
WILLIAM   NORTH   (BORN    1842) 141 

XIII.  A    PAINTER    OF    PURE    LANDSCAPE  :    CECIL    GORDON 

LAWSON   (1851-1882) 157 

XIV.  THE   PAINTERS   OF  THE   SEA:    HENRY   MOORE  (1831- 

189s);  JOHN  BRETT  (1831-1902)  ;  JAMES  CLARKE 
HOOK  (Born  1819);  C  NAPIER  HEMY  (Born  1841); 
COLIN   HUNTER  (Born    1841) 165 

XV.   TWO     PAINTERS     OF     ANIMALS  :     BRITON     RIVIERE 

(Born   1840);   H.  W.  B.   DAVIS  (Born   1833)         .        .     173 

XVI.    MODERN   GENRE  AND   HISTORICAL   PAINTERS      .         .     183 

XVII.   THE   MODERN   SCHOOL   OF   PLEIN  AIR   PAINTERS     .     193 


vui 


LIST   OF    ILLUSTRATIONS 


ECCE  ANCILLA  DOMINI Frontispiece 

By  D.  G.  RossETTi 

THE  POOL  OF  LONDON To  faux  page  t^ 

By  G.  VicAT  Cole,  R.A. 

JUNE  IN  THE  AUSTRIAN  TYROL ,,46 

By  J.  MacWhirter,  R.A. 

CHRIST  WASHING  ST.  PETER'S  FEET ,60 

By  Ford  Madox  Brown 

ROSA  TRIPLEX 74 

By  D.  G.  RossETTi 

OPHELIA 84 

By  Sir  J.  £.  Millais,  P.R.A. 

THE  VALE  OF  REST 86 

By  Sir  J.  E.  Millais,  P.R.A. 

LOVE  AND  LIFE ,,108 

By  G.  F.  Watts,  R.A. 

BLOSSOMS „         lao 

By  Albert  Moore 

THE  BATH  OF  PSYCHE 136 

By  Lord  Lughton,  P.R.A. 

THE  VAGRANTS „         144 

By  Frederic  Walker,  A.R.A. 

ix 


LIST    OF    ILLUSTRATIONS 

THE  HARBOUR  OF  REFUGE To  face  page  148 

By  Frederic  Walker,  A.R.A. 

WIND  ON  THE  WOLD 150 

By  G.  H.  Mason,  A.R.A. 

THE  CAST  SHOE ,,152 

By  G.  H.  Mason,  A.R.A. 

THE  AUGUST  MOON 162 

By  Cecil  G.  Lawson 

CATSPAWS  OFF  THE  LAND ,,170 

By  Henrv  Moore,  R.A. 

THE  MIRACLE  OF  THE  GADARENE  SWINE         .        .  ,,178 

By  Briton  Riviere,  R.A. 

RETURNING  TO  THE  FOLD ,,180 

By  H.  W.  B.  Davis,  R.A. 

THE  VIGIL ,,190 

By  John  Pettie,  R.A. 

AUGUST  BLUE ,,200 

By  Henrv  S.  Tuke,  A.R.A. 


CHAPTER  I 

INTRODUCTORY:    THE   FORMATION   OF  THE 

COLLECTION   AND  THE   BUILDING 

OF  THE   GALLERY 


^        OF  THt 

UNIVERSITY 
°'  t 


PICTURES    IN    THE 
TATE    GALLERY 


CHAPTER    I 

INTRODUCTORY:    THE   FORMATION   OF  THE   COLLEC- 
TION  AND  THE   BUILDING   OF   THE   GALLERY 

T  is  probably  with  a  sense  of  surprise  that 
many  visitors  to  the  Tate  Gallery  read 
upon  the  covers  of  the  official  catalogue, 
"  Pictures  and  Sculpture  in  the  National 
Gallery  of  British  Art."  We  remember 
dimly  that  this  was  the  original  designation 
of  Sir  Henry  Tate's  gift  to  the  nation.  But  the  academic 
name  only  lingers  officially ;  from  the  very  first  it  was  dis- 
carded by  the  populace.  Upon  the  day  the  Gallery  was 
opened  they  coupled  the  building  with  the  name  of  its 
founder,  and  to  the  majority  of  people  it  still  remains  the 
Tate  Gallery.  And  in  this  instance  the  popular  verdict  was 
right.  The  Tate  Gallery  is  a  better  name  for  the  collection 
at  Millbank  than  the  National  Gallery  of  British  Art, 
Indeed,  while  reviewing  the  history  of  the  building  and  its 

3 


PICTURES    IN 

pictures,  one  fact  has  remained  dominant  in  my  mind.  We 
owe  this  record  of  British  art  in  the  main  to  individual  effort. 
The  Tate  Gallery  is  a  series  of  munificent  gifts  rather  than  a 
national  collection. 

In  the  dawning  years  of  the  nineteenth  century  art  was 
not  regarded  as  a  forcible  factor  in  the  public  weal.  It  was 
a  period  of  artistic  uniformity  marked  by  a  singular  want  of 
variety  of  outlook.  Many  pictures  were  painted,  but  there 
was  little  distinctive  British  art,  if  we  understand  the 
phrase  in  its  full  significance.  Groups  of  historical  and 
genre  painters  clung  to  traditional  ideals ;  the  colour  of 
their  pictures  was  ruined  by  the  use  of  bitumen ;  their 
surfaces  were  stippled  to  one  glossy  regularity  of  texture, 
while  their  subjects  were  chosen  with  a  finer  regard  for 
sentiment  than  for  truth.  The  supreme  object  of  the 
approved  painter  was  to  fulfil  conditions  that  had  become 
classic.  Turner  and  Constable,  the  interpreters  of  landscape, 
alone  handled  their  paint  in  such  a  way  that  they  depicted 
Nature  in  a  living  and  truthful  guise. 

This  morient  growth  of  benumbing  tradition  was  not 
confined  to  art  alone.  It  was  a  vibration  from  widespread 
thought.  Through  every  section  of  life  we  find  the  same 
corroding  desire  to  cling  to  established  customs.  It  is  true 
that  as  early  as  1836  a  special  report  of  the  House  of 
Commons  was  issued,  advising  that  some  portion  of  the 
National  Gallery  should  be  set  apart  for  the  encouragement 
and  perpetuation  of  British  Art.  In  the  same  record  we  find 
a  recommendation  that  pictures  by  living  painters  should 
be  purchased,  "  after  they  had  stood  the  test  of  time  and 
criticism." 

4 


THE    TATE    GALLERY 

Little  practical  outgrowth  appears  to  have  followed  this 
suggestion.  From  time  to  time  a  cry  was  raised  in  the 
press,  urging  the  necessity  for  a  national  collection  con- 
secrated to  British  Art.  But  the  primal  action  was  taken 
in  1842,  when  Sir  Francis  Chantrey,  the  sculptor,  be- 
queathed the  reversion  of  his  fortune  in  trust  to  the  Presi- 
dent and  Council  of  the  Royal  Academy,  "  for  the  purchase 
of  Works  of  Fine  Art  of  the  Highest  Merit  in 
Painting  and  Sculpture  that  can  be  obtained,  either 
already  executed  or  which  may  hereafter  be  executed  by 
artists  of  any  nation,  provided  such  artists  shall  have 
actually  resided  in  Great  Britain  during  the  executing  and 
completing  of  such  works." 

These  are  the  terms  of  Sir  Francis  Chantrey's  will. 
The  words  were  written  while  he  dreamed  of  a  National 
Collection  which  would  worthily  represent  British  Art. 

It  is  a  point  of  interest  to  note  that  all  prices  paid 
were  commanded  to  be  liberal,  while  the  solitary  considera- 
tion that  was  to  influence  the  selection  of  a  work  of  art 
was  its  intrinsic  merit. 

"  It  is  my  wish  and  intention  that  the  works  of  Art 
so  purchased  shall  be  collected  for  the  purpose  of  forming 
and  establishing  a  Public  National  Collection  of 
British  Fine  Art  in  Painting  and  Sculpture." 

With  delightful  optimism  the  will  continues,  "in  the 
confident  expectation  that,  whenever  the  collection  shall 
become  or  be  considered  of  sufficient  importance,  the 
Government  or  the  Country  will  provide  a  suitable  and 
proper  building  or  accommodation  for  their  preservation 
and  exhibition  as  the  property  of  the  nation." 

5 


PICTURES    IN 

The  Tate  Gallery  is  the  fulfilment  of  this  hope. 

It  was  not  until  the  death  of  Lady  Chantrey,  in  1876, 
that  the  bequest  came  into  effect.  Next  year  seven  pictures 
and  one  piece  of  sculpture  were  purchased  by  the  Royal 
Academy  Trustees  for  an  amount  somewhat  over  ;^5ooo. 
Year  by  year  fresh  works  were  acquired,  but  a  National 
Gallery  of  British  Art  was  still  a  dream.  The  Chantrey 
pictures  and  statues  were  stowed  in  South  Kensington 
Museum ;  the  National  Gallery  in  Trafalgar  Square  was 
already  overcrowded,  and  as  the  Chantrey  gifts  continued 
to  multiply,  certain  pictures  were  sent  on  loan  to  the 
provinces,  principally  for  the  purpose  of  getting  rid  of 
them. 

In  1885  this  was  the  somewhat  dreary  result  of  Sir 
Francis  Chantrey's  generosity.  In  this  year  public  in- 
terest was  redirected  to  the  necessity  for  promoting  British 
Art.  A  paper  was  read  by  Mr.  James  Orrock  before  the 
Society  for  the  Encouragement  of  Fine  Arts,  with  the 
result  that  a  petition  for  an  annual  parliamentary  grant 
of  ;^5ooo  for  the  advancement  of  national  painting  was 
suggested.  Much  was  written  upon  the  subject,  but  the 
outcome  appears  to  have  been  little  more  than  an  in- 
creased interest  centred  in  the  question.  Once  more 
there  were  many  suggestions  and  much  talking,  while 
practical  accomplishment  was  again  left  to  a  private 
individual. 

In  the  summer  of  1890  Sir  Henry,  then  Mr.  Tate, 
offered  the  Government  "  not  fewer  than  fifty-seven  of  his 
pictures  to  form  the  nucleus  of  a  British  collection,"  with 
the    obligation    that    his    gift  should    remain    intact,    and 

6 


THE    TATE    GALLERY 

should  not  be  housed  either  at  the  National  Gallery  or 
South  Kensington  Museum. 

The  necessity  for  a  separate  Gallery  devoted  to  British 
Art  now  became  imperative,  but  it  appears  doubtful  if  the 
question  would  ever  have  passed  the  initial  stage  of  sug- 
gestive argument,  if  Sir  Henry  Tate  had  not  offered — in 
the  first  instance  anonymously — a  sum  of  j^8o,ooo  to 
erect  a  building,  if  the  Government  would  provide  a  suit- 
able site.  Even  then  discussion  was  not  ended.  A 
locality  acceptable  to  both  sides  was  for  long  sought  in 
vain,  and  during  many  months  the  inglorious  warfare 
continued. 

The  record  of  this  counterplay  of  generosity  and  mis- 
management is  not  inspiriting.  At  one  time  it  appeared 
probable  that  Sir  Henry's  liberal  proposal  would  be  swamped 
in  the  sea  of  wrangling.  However,  the  situation  was  re- 
deemed by  a  change  of  Government.  Sir  William  Harcourt 
proposed  to  meet  Mr.  Tate,  and  in  half-an-hour  they  decided 
the  question.  Millbank  Prison  had  recently  been  pulled 
down,  and  this  site,  which  had  every  advantage  except 
accessibility,  was  offered  and  accepted.  It  was  further 
agreed  that,  upon  the  completion  of  the  building,  the 
management  should  be  placed  in  the  care  of  the  Trustees 
of  the  National  Gallery.  This  was  an  arrangement  of 
considerable  advantage;  it  linked  the  new  institution  with 
the  older  Gallery,  and  ensured  the  removal  of  the  more 
modern  British  pictures  to  enrich  the  Millbank  collection. 

From  this  time  no  delay  impeded  the  building.  The 
foundations  were  laid  in  September  1893,  and  four  years 
later,    on    21st    July    1897,    the   Gallery   was   opened,   and 

7 


PICTURES    IN 

formally     handed     over     to     the     Government     by     King 
Edward  VII.,  at  that  time  Prince  of  Wales. 

THIS    GALLERY 

AND    SIXTY-FIVE    PICTURES 

WERE   PRESENTED   TO   THE   NATION 

BY 

HENRY    TATE 

FOR    THE 

ENCOURAGEMENT     AND     DEVELOPMENT 

OF   BRITISH   ART 

AND  AS  A  THANK-OFFERING  FOR 

A  PROSPEROUS   BUSINESS   CAREER  OF 

SIXTY  YEARS 

This  simple  record  of  a  great  gift  is  inscribed  upon 
the  base  of  a  column  in  the  Sculpture  Gallery,  immediately 
in  front  of  the  entrance. 

Originally  the  Gallery  was  of  little  more  than  half  its 
present  size.  The  rooms  were  already  filled  upon  the 
opening  day,  and  Sir  Henry  Tate  at  once  decided  to  use 
part  of  the  remaining  land,  which  had  been  granted  to 
him  by  the  Government,  to  extend  the  building. 

We  cannot  refrain  from  admiration  when  we  remember 
this  unasked  and  continued  donation.  The  initial  outlay 
had  already  amounted  to  ;^  105,000,  much  above  the  amount 
first  promised.  But  Sir  Henry's  interest  in  his  gift  was 
very  deep,  and  his  generosity  was  unstinted.  He  was  a 
constant  visitor  at   the   Gallery  until   his   death,  in    1900, 


THE    TATE    GALLERY 

and  he  always  took  a  practical  and  personal  concern  in  its 
government.  His  loss  is  still  deeply  felt  by  all  connected 
with  the  Tate  Gallery. 

Of  the  building  itself  it  is  necessary  to  say  very  little. 
It  was  designed  by  Mr.  Sidney  R.  J.  Smith,  F.R.I. B.A., 
who  eloquently  describes  the  architecture  as  being  "in  a 
free  classic  style,  with  a  Greek  feeling  in  the  mouldings 
and  ornaments." 

It  is  not  possible  to  praise  the  motive  which  inspired 
this  mixed  style  of  decoration.  But  few  of  us  have  suffi- 
cient knowledge  to  perceive  these  defects.  The  rooms  are 
spacious  and  well-lighted,  and  this,  after  all,  is  the  question 
of  central  importance  in  a  picture  gallery. 

I  have  dwelt  at  some  length  upon  the  record  of  the 
troubles  and  anxieties  which  attended  the  birth  of  our 
National  Gallery  of  British  Art.  To  me  they  explain 
much  of  the  composite  character  of  the  collection.  It 
is  well  to  remember  the  varied  sources  from  which  the 
pictures  have  been  gathered.  Again  I  would  say,  tnat  this 
aggregation  of  art  is  the  result  of  individual  taste  rather 
than  of  national  selection.  It  is  possible  some  advantage 
may  be  gained  from  this  variety,  but  it  certainly  lessens 
the  representative  value  of  the  work. 

With  Mr.  Tate's  gift  this  was  inevitable.  The  pictures 
were  chosen  from  his  collection  at  Streatham  by  the  Trustees 
of  the  Royal  Academy.  Only  five  of  the  offered  pictures 
were  rejected ;  sixty-one  canvases  were  brought  to  the 
Tate  Gallery,  and  to  this  number  five  more  were  afterwards 
added.  It  is  probable  many  of  us  may  wish  that  the 
appreciation  of  the  selectors  had  been  less  catholic.      Still 

9  B 


PICTURES    IN 

many  of  the  pictures  are  excellent.  The  majority  are  by 
modern  painters,  though  a  strong  work  by  old  Crome, 
two  landscapes  by  Linnell,  Sir  E.  Landseer's  "  Uncle  Tom 
and  his  Wife  for  Sale,"  and  a  portrait  by  Hoppner  are 
noteworthy  exceptions.  Among  the  modern  painters  we 
have  the  exquisite  "Wind  on  the  Wold,"  by  G.  H.  Mason, 
and  many  works  by  Sir  John  Millais.  No  other  painter 
is  equally  well  represented,  unless  possibly  Mr.  Orchard- 
son  and  Mr.  Briton  Riviere,  and  to  the  Tate  gift  we  owe 
the  two  fine  pre  -  Raphaelite  pictures  "Ophelia"  and 
"  The  Vale  of  Rest." 

Upon  the  opening  of  the  Gallery  the  works  acquired 
under  the  terms  of  the  Chantrey  trust  were  brought  from 
South  Kensington  Museum.  These  pictures  now  fill  the 
four  corridors  upon  the  right  of  the  Sculpture  Hall ;  prior 
to  the  extension  of  the  building  they  were  all  crowded 
into  the  first  long  Gallery.  At  that  date  seventy-two 
pictures  and  twelve  pieces  of  sculpture  had  been  bought 
at  a  total  expenditure  of  ;;£5i,'j  12. 

It  is  not  easy  to  speak  of  these  pictures  without  a 
certain  sense  of  disappointment  when  we  remember  the 
terms  of  the  bequest.  We  cannot  fail  to  think  of  the 
desire  of  Sir  Francis  Chantrey,  as  he  pictured  a  British 
Gallery  of  painting  and  sculpture  that  would  contain  "  the 
best  works  of  art  that  could  be  obtained."  However,  it 
is  not  our  province  to  criticise  the  manner  in  which  these 
hopes  have  been  fulfilled.  We  have  to  speak  of  the  pic- 
tures in  the  Gallery,  and  not  of  those  we  might  wish  to 
see.  The  names  of  unrepresented  masters  must  necessarily 
rise  in  our  minds  as  we  linger  among  the  pictures.     And 

10 


THE   TATE   GALLERY 

to  some  of  us  the  collection  must  remain  incomplete 
until  such  men  as  Whistler,  Holman  Hunt,  Brangwyn, 
and  Furse,  as  well  as  several  members  of  the  Glasgow 
school  are  here  acknowledged  among  the  painters  of  their 
age. 

Many  regretted  omissions  have  been  repaired  by  indi- 
vidual gifts.  Rossetti's  "  Beata  Beatrix  "  and  "  Rosa  Triplex," 
"  Christ  Washing  the  Feet  of  Peter "  by  Ford  Madox 
Brown,  the  works  of  Alfred  Stevens,  "  St.  John  Leading 
the  Virgin  from  the  Tomb "  by  William  Dyce,  Frederick 
Walker's  "  Harbour  of  Refuge,"  Cecil  Lawson's  "  August 
Moon,"  "  Femmes  en  Pridre "  by  Alphonse  Legros,  "  King 
Cophetua  and  the  Beggar-Maid "  by  Sir  Edward  Burne 
Jones,  have  all  been  presented  privately  to  the  nation. 
Bereft,  indeed,  would  be  the  collection  of  British  Art  were 
these  works  removed.  Thus,  even  again,  we  are  driven 
back  to  the  thought  that  the  Tate  Gallery  is  the  result  of 
personal  munificence. 

We  have  yet  to  record  the  gift  of  Mr.  G.  F.  Watts. 
Seventeen  of  his  works  he  dedicated  to  the  nation.  These 
were  placed  in  the  Gallery  before  the  opening  ceremony, 
and  to  this  initial  gift  seven  more  works  have  since  been 
added.  The  pictures  hang  alone  in  a  long  well-lighted 
room.  We  are  surrounded  with  the  work  of  one  creator. 
The  canvases  are  not  all  of  equal  beauty  nor  have  they 
all  the  same  technical  merit.  But  here  it  is  possible  to 
enter  into  the  spirit  of  the  painter,  and  to  understand 
something  of  the  fulness  of  his  art. 

Most  of  the  remaining  pictures  were  transferred  to 
Millbank  from  the  National  Gallery.     It  was  a  question  of 

II 


THE    TATE   GALLERY 

some  difficulty  to  decide  which  pictures  should  be  retained 
at  Trafalgar  Square,  and  which  should  be  sent  to  the  new 
British  collection.  The  year  1790  was  taken  as  the  divid- 
ing line,  and  although  there  are  several  notable  exceptions, 
roughly  speaking,  it  may  be  said  that  the  chief  British 
pictures  painted  during  the  last  hundred  years  were  removed 
to  the  Tate  Gallery. 

These,  then,  are  the  sources  from  which  the  pictures 
have  been  gathered. 

"What  ought  a  National  Collection  to  be?"  This 
question  was  asked  by  William  Dyce,  in  a  letter  he 
addressed  to  H.R.H.  Prince  Albert,  on  the  Formation 
and  Management  of  the  National  Gallery : — 

"A  National  Collection  can  aim  at  no  lower  object  than 
to  exhibit  the  whole  development  of  the  art  of  painting ;  the 
examples  of  which  it  consists  must  therefore  range  over 
its  whole  history — extensive,  illustrative,  with  the  greatest 
possible  fulness  and  variety,  —  at  once  extensive  and 
complete." 

This  answer  embodies  the  dream  of  Sir  Francis  Chantrey. 
It  is  still  the  ideal  of  those  who  recognise  the  breadth  and 
the  power  of  British  Art. 


12 


CHAPTER  II 

THE   GENRE   AND   HISTORICAL   PAINTERS 
OF  THE   EARLY  VICTORIAN   ERA 


CHAPTER  II 

THE   GENRE   AND   HISTORICAL   PAINTERS  OF 
THE   EARLY   VICTORIAN   ERA 

|HE  early  Victorian  era  was  a  time  of  picture 
making  rather  than  of  picture  painting. 
Until  the  year  1850,  which  may  stand  as  a 
somewhat  arbitrary  boundary  line  between 
the  old  and  the  new  ideals,  the  main  object 
of  the  ordinary  painter  was  to  produce  a 
pleasing  picture — to  suggest  a  story,  to  teach  a  lesson,  to 
raise  a  laugh,  gently  to  excite  emotion ;  these  were  his 
ambitions,  and  to  these  he  often  sacrificed  his  truth  of  vision. 
••  In  thirty  years  English  art  will  have  ceased  to  exist," 
wrote  Constable  in  182 1,  as  he  realised  the  weakness  that 
had  arisen  from  an  unintelligent  following  of  tradition  ; 
and  he  might  have  added,  "  Killed  by  the  vice  of  anecdote." 

An  artistic  expression  that  conformed  with  the  accepted 
standard,  and  was  simple  to  understand,  appealed  to  a  wider 
audience.  In  this  way  the  first  purpose  of  the  anecdotal 
painters  became  the  interest  of  their  subject,  until  at  last 
the  theme  of  their  pictures  grew  to  be  of  more  moment 
than  how  they  achieved  their  work.  They  set  out  to  paint 
with  this  purpose  of  a  pleasing  subject  steadfast  in  their 
minds.     They  pondered  over  books  to  find  stories  to  paint ; 

»5 


PICTURES  IN 

they  regarded  every  incident  with  the  same  intention  ;  all  the 
many  suggestive  figures  of  everyday  life  they  immediately 
arranged  into  pictures,  and  the  result  of  this  false  ideal 
was  a  slow  but  inevitable  weakening  of  artistic  strength. 
The  palette  of  these  painters  was  restricted  to  a  few  cold 
and  heavy  tints.  They  habitually  used  bitumen  to  give 
lustre  to  their  canvases,  thereby  destroying  the  permanent 
beauty  of  their  paint ;  they  disregarded  chiaroscuro  and  knew 
little  of  the  effect  of  light  upon  colour.  As  a  rule  their 
manner  of  handling  was  heavy  and  niggling  ;  they  delighted 
in  brown  shadows,  and  many  of  their  pictures  look  as  if 
they  were  painted  with  treacle.  The  scenes  chosen  were 
invariably  pleasing,  but  the  attitudes  were  often  common- 
place with  memories  of  the  lay  figure.  Three  traits,  how- 
ever, redeem  their  work  from  paltriness :  its  sincerity,  its 
humour,  and  its  intensity — and  these  characteristics  may 
be  traced,  in  lesser  or  fuller  degree,  in  all  their  pictures. 

Perhaps  no  one  illustrates  these  limitations  and  these 
distinctive  merits  more  convincingly  than  Sir  David  Wilkie 
(1785- 1 841),  the  greatest  of  the  Victorian  genre  painters. 
Wilkie  diligently  studied  Ostade  and  other  Dutch  masters, 
and  this  influence  was  powerful  in  moulding  his  early  work. 
The  story  of  his  receiving  Hogarth's  maulstick  is  well 
known,  and  the  incident  is  not  without  significance.  To 
some  extent  Wilkie  was  the  successor  of  Hogarth,  and  he 
continued  the  tradition  that  it  was  the  artist's  duty  to  use 
his  technical  power  to  narrate  rather  than  to  depict.  He 
spoke  in  a  milder  language  than  the  strong  early  master, 
nor  was  he  gifted  with  the  same  rare  technical  ability. 
He  was   less  tragic,  and  had  more   humour,  and   was  not 

16 


THE    TATE    GALLERY 

burdened  with  the  same  intense  desire  to  teach.  One 
painter  felt  the  bitterness  of  life,  while  the  other  realised 
its  quaint  sweetness,  but  both  were  alike  in  making  the 
subject  the  primary  interest  of  their  pictures. 

The  year  1825  marks  a  boundary  in  Wilkie's  life.  The 
pictures  painted  before  that  time  are  scenes  of  unaffected 
domestic  genre;  they  breathe  a  jovial  light -heartedness, 
which  causes  us  to  forgive  the  paucity  of  their  imagina- 
tion. Here  we  discover  the  true  Wilkie,  as  nature  meant 
him  to  be,  uncomplex,  very  English,  a  little  commonplace, 
but  absolutely  sincere. 

In  the  study  of  "  Blind  Man's  Buff"  and  in  "The  News- 
mongers," we  see  the  painter  at  his  best,  in  no  way  great, 
but  simple,  sincere,  and  merry.  The  figures  in  the  latter 
picture  have  a  charming  grace.  It  is  an  old-fashioned 
group.  A  girl  sits  upon  a  stile,  a  boy  leans  over  her 
shoulder,  while  together  they  read  the  week's  news.  The 
figures  grouped  around  them  are  all  listening  to  the  reader, 
the  attitudes  are  natural,  each  face  is  eagerly  happy,  for 
there  is  nothing  tragic  in  the  news-sheet  Wilkie  pictures. 

Contrast  this  early  work  with  "The  First  Ear-ring" 
or  the  "Preaching  of  John  Knox,"  one  painted  in  1835 
and  the  other  in  1832.  The  change  in  Wilkie's  style 
cannot  be  mistaken.  His  simple  English  matter-pf-factness 
is  gone,  his  handling  is  broader  and  freer,  his  colour  is 
deeper;  there  is  more  thought,  more  meaning  in  these 
pictures,  but  we  miss  the  single-mindedness  which  charmed 
us  in  the  earlier  work- 
in  1825  Wilkie  journeyed  to  the  Continent  to  regain 
his   health.     For  three  years   he  travelled,  and   meanwhile 

17  c 


PICTURES    IN 

the  paintings  of  the  old  masters  burst  upon  him  as  a 
revelation.  He  admired  the  style  of  Rembrandt  and 
Correggio,  while  in  Spain  he  was  deeply  influenced  by 
the  living  reality  of  Velazquez. 

For  many  months  Wilkie  stayed  in  the  Peninsula,  while 
he  made  a  deep  study  of  Spanish  art.  He  went  to  Seville 
and  saw  the  melting  tones  of  Murillo,  and  it  is  interesting 
to  learn  that  he  was  the  first  critic  to  note  the  faults  in 
the  Sevillian  favourite's  over-lauded  picture  of  "  Moses 
Striking  the  Rock,"  in  the  Caridad  of  Seville. 

Wilkie  returned  to  England  with  his  simple  art  creed 
shattered.  Somewhat  later  he  went  to  Eugene  Delacroix 
to  ask  his  judgment  upon  a  series  of  Spanish  sketches. 
And  the  French  painter  gives  this  record  of  the  inter- 
view: "He  seemed  to  me  entirely  unsettled  by  the  paint- 
ings he  had  seen.  I  wondered  that  a  man  with  so  true 
a  genius  could  be  thus  influenced  by  works  so  different 
from  his  own." 

This  upheaval  of  the  artistic  foundations  of  a  very 
simple  and  sincere  painter  is  touched  with  pathos.  Very 
earnestly  Wilkie  strove  for  "the  grand  manner"  he  envied. 
He  was  always  a  careful  worker,  and  we  learn  that  some- 
where about  this  time  he  devoted  six  weeks  to  painting  a 
tablecloth.  But  an  artist  can  only  give  to  others  the 
natural  outgrowth  of  his  own  nature,  and  Wilkie  was  not 
constituted  to  express  this  new  ideal. 

From  this  time  he  ceased  to  paint  his  scenes  of  village 
life,  instead  he  worked  from  his  Spanish  sketches,  or  com- 
posed striking  historic  scenes.  It  must  not  be  thought  that 
these   pictures  are  without  merit.      "The    First  Ear-ring" 

i8 


THE    TATE    GALLERY 

has  a  certain  quaint  grace  which  almost  causes  us  to  forget 
its  unreality.  The  vigour  of  many  of  the  figures  in  the 
scene  of  John  Knox  is  admirable ;  they  are  portraits,  excel- 
lently drawn,  and  well  coloured.  But  the  genius  of  painting 
an  historical  scene  is  to  make  it  live  again,  and  with  all  its 
power,  all  its  workmanship,  the  picture  remains  a  failure — 
a  careful  piece  of  painting,  interesting,  but  without  reality. 
Wilkie  possessed  none  of  the  qualities  necessary  for  the 
creation  of  great  art.  He  was  the  child  of  his  period, 
sharing  its  simplicity  and  its  rigid  limitations. 

In  examining  Wilkie's  two  manners  we  have  exhausted 
the  motives  which  impelled  the  greater  number  of  his 
contemporaries.  A  sentimental  love  of  trivial  incident, 
intermingled  with  a  yearning  for  the  grandeur  of  a  classic 
manner ;  these  were  the  main  artistic  dynamics  in  the  first 
years  of  the  last  century.  Thomas  Webster  (1800- 1886), 
William  Mulready  (i 786-1863),  William  Collins  (i 788-1847), 
Thomas  Good  (i 789-1872)  and  many  others  continued  to 
paint  village  scenes ;  very  pretty,  a  little  sentimental,  and 
perfectly  easy  to  understand.  They  speak  a  language 
untouched  with  personality;  "The  Truant,"  "A  Dame's 
School,"  "The  Last  In,"  "The  Newspaper,"  "No  News," 
"The  Prawn  Catchers" — how  we  loved  these  pictures  in 
our  childhood  I  The  ABC  illustrations  wherein  we  learnt 
our  first  stumbling  spellings  in  art!  It  may  be  we  have 
travelled  far  from  them ;  yet  we  look  back  to  these  pictures 
with  thoughts  of  affectionate  memory. 

Sir  Edwin  Landseer  (1802- 1873)  claims  a  place  among 
the  group  of  anecdotal  painters.  No  other  artist  reveals 
more  forcibly  the    strong    tendencies   of   British    painting. 

»9 


PICTURES    IN 

Landseer  tells  his  picture-stories  about  animals  instead  of 
about  people.  This  is  the  only  difference.  As  a  rule  his 
dogs,  his  stags,  and  his  horses  were  not  painted  for  their 
own  sake  alone,  but  for  some  picturesque  motive  they  were 
intended  to  illustrate.  Undoubtedly  he  had  a  special 
instinct  for  delineating  animal  nature.  Still  the  majority 
of  his  animals  are  humanised,  and  he  was  not  free  from 
the  bane  of  the  anecdotal  ideal.  Walk  around  the  corridors 
of  the  Tate  Gallery  and  look  at  Landseer's  pictures,  or  go 
to  the  National  Gallery  where  the  majority  of  his  work  is 
gathered,  you  will  notice  that  in  many  instances  his  animals 
are  brushed,  washed,  and  arranged  just  ready  to  be  painted. 
Perhaps  the  only  canvas  where  these  defects  are  entirely 
absent  is  "The  Sleeping  Bloodhound,"  the  strongest  and 
simplest  of  his  animal  studies.  Landseer  was  a  fine 
draughtsman,  but  he  failed  to  realise  the  power  of  colour, 
while  his  paint,  especially  in  his  more  finished  pictures, 
has,  what  Holman  Hunt  aptly  terms,  "  a  pomatumy  tex- 
ture." If  you  wish  to  prove  the  truth  of  this  statement, 
study  the  large  Equestrian  picture,  wherein  the  figure  is 
painted  by  Millais  and  the  animals  by  Landseer.  Note 
the  difference  in  the  quality  of  the  paint  in  the  horse  and 
in  the  lady.  The  contrast  is  too  obvious  to  require  com- 
ment ;  only  in  the  dog,  which  is  unfinished,  is  there  any 
living  quality  in  the  texture  of  Landseer's  paint. 

What  I  have  written  in  the  foregoing  paragraph  is 
not  intended  as  a  dissertation  against  Landseer's  work. 
He  was  simply  the  painter  of  his  own  age,  and  if  his 
pictures  are  typical  of  its  limitations,  they  also  illustrate 
its   achievements.     M.  de  la  Sizeranne  has  pointed  out  in 

20 


THE    TATE    GALLERY 

his  illuminative  book  upon  English  Contemporary  Art, 
that  his  pictures  portray  at  least  one  great  virtue. 
The  intensity  of  expression  with  which  Landseer 
almost  invariably  endows  his  animals  is  the  presage 
of  much  that  is  strongest  in  our  national  art.  It  was 
this  intensity  which  was  to  bring  the  renaissance  of  British 
painting. 

The  main  exponents  of  the  historic  tradition  were 
Daniel  Maclise  (1806-1870)  and  E.  M.  Ward  (1816-1879). 
Maclise  was  the  celebrated  painter  of  his  day,  adored 
and  imitated  by  numerous  contemporaries,  who  diligently 
copied  his  faults.  Endowed  with  the  bane  of  facility 
he  decorated  miles  of  wall-space  and  painted  unlimited 
yards  of  canvas.  He  was  the  Charles  Dickens  of 
painting,  while  Ward  was  the  Walter  Scott.  The  two 
painters  were  entrusted  with  the  decoration  of  the  Houses 
of  Parliament.  This  was  their  best  work.  The  original 
cartoon  for  the  fresco,  by  Maclise,  of  Wellington  meeting 
Blucher  upon  the  field  of  Waterloo  is  preserved  in  the 
Diploma  Gallery  at  Burlington  House.  It  is  necessary 
to  see  this  work  to  in  any  way  understand  the  popularity 
of  this  painter.  The  many  figures  are  strongly  drawn, 
and  we  realise  his  power  as  a  draughtsman.  This 
strength  is  absent  from  his  easel  pictures ;  they  typify 
conventionalised  art  **  Malvolio  and  the  Countess " 
and  "The  Play  Scenes  in  Hamlet"  his  two  pictures  in 
the  Tate  Collection,  may  be  taken  as  fair  samples.  They 
are  vicious  and  trivial,  false  in  sentiment,  with  untrue 
colour,  arranged  postures  and  set  movements.  We  have 
only  to  look  upon  them  to  realise  the  slough  of  unreality 

II 


PICTURES    IN 

into  which  historic  painting  had  fallen,  through  blind 
clinging  to  stereotyped  expression. 

It  is  only  fair  to  say  there  is  more  truth  in  the  com- 
positions of  E.  M.  Ward.  "  Dr.  Johnson  in  the  Ante- 
room of  Lord  Chesterfield,"  "James  II.  receiving  the 
News  of  the  Landing  of  the  Prince  of  Orange,"  and 
"The  Scene  in  Change  Alley  at  the  time  of  the  South  Sea 
Bubble"  are  all  well  told  stories.  They  are  excellent  in 
their  realisation  of  the  dresses  and  of  the  details,  but  they 
are  very  dull,  and  they  are  unrelieved  by  any  gleam  of 
true  colour, 

Midway  between  these  groups  of  artists  —  the  false 
historic  and  the  pretty  anecdotal  —  were  the  painters 
whose  work  may  be  classified  as  literary  illustrations. 
Foremost  among  these  interpreters  of  literary  anecdote 
were  C.  R.  Leslie  (1794-1859)  and  G.  S.  Newton  (1794- 
1^35)-  Perhaps  no  picture  among  the  early  paintings 
in  the  Tate  Gallery  has  the  same  dainty  grace  as  Newton's 
"Yorick  and  the  Grisette."  Newton  paints  in  the  same 
spirit  in  which  Oliver  Goldsmith  wrote  —  the  same  in- 
expressible charm  pervades  his  work,  like  a  scent  of 
sweet  lavender  and  mignonette  or  the  songs  of  birds. 
Criticism  is  silenced.  The  painter  carries  us  into  the 
atmosphere  of  the  Sentimental  Journey.  We  forget  to 
notice  the  disproportion  of  Yorick's  figure,  or  the  ab- 
surdities of  the  little  dog  conventionally  posed  in  the 
foreground.  We  relinquish  ourselves  to  enjoy  the  sweet 
humour  of  the  scene ;  we  picture  Yorick  with  the  beautiful 
grisette,    measuring    the    gloves    one    by    one    across    his 

hand. 

22 


THE   TATE   GALLERY 

In  Leslie's  pictures  we  have  stories  diluted  with 
sportive  humour.  Holman  Hunt  writes  of  the  painter  in 
his  diary: — 

"  Leslie  was  to  me  thoroughly  insipid  with  sweet  sim- 
plicity." 

It  may  be  this  judgment  is  somewhat  severe.  One 
merit  Leslie  had ;  he  was  able  to  depict  fine  shades  of 
expression,  and  if  these  expressions  are  always  trivial, 
they  are  often  amusing.  "  Sancho  Panza  in  the  Apart- 
ment of  the  Duchess"  is  a  depictment  of  harmless  merri- 
ment, ruined  by  the  cold  colour  and  hard  dry  painting. 
It  is  typical  of  the  manner  in  which  Leslie  conceived  a 
literary  scene. 

His  power  was  greater  in  simple  incidents  only 
necessitating  the  introduction  of  one  or  two  figures.  His 
best  picture  is  the  familiar  "  Uncle  Toby  and  the  Widow 
Wadman," 

This  story  is  known  to  every  one. 

" '  I  protest,  madame,'  said  my  Uncle  Toby,  '  I  can  see 
nothing  whatever  in  your  eye.' 

"  '  Is  it  not  in  the  white  ?  '  said  Mrs.  Wadman.  My 
Uncle  Toby  looked  with  might  and  main  into  the  pupil." 

The  humour  of  the  scene  is  absolutely  realised  in  the 
picture. 

It  is  not  easy  to  gather  together  all  the  scattered  threads 
which  unite  the  work  of  these  early  painters.  We  have 
indirectly  referred  to  the  classic  tradition  which  coexisted 
with  the  more  purely  British  expression  of  painted  anec- 
dote. William  Etty  (i 789-1849),  the  head  of  these  pseudo- 
classicists,  was  great  in  spite  of  his  unreality  and  affectation. 

23 


PICTURES    IN 

Through  patient  work  he  had  mastered  the  painter's  inherent 
difficulty  of  rendering  the  brilliancy  of  flesh.  Look  carefully 
at  "Youth  at  the  Prow  and  Pleasure  at  the  Helm,"  or  at 
"The  Lute  Player,"  or  still  more  at  "The  Bather."  In  all 
the  pictures  the  attitudes  are  stereotyped — nay  worse,  they 
are  commonplace  and  at  times  almost  vulgar;  there  is  no 
new  thought  in  the  inspiration  of  the  work,  but  for  abso- 
lute beauty  of  flesh  the  paintings  are  difficult  to  surpass. 
Etty  was  an  ardent  student,  again  and  again  until  he  was 
quite  old,  he  returned  to  the  Academy  schools  to  paint 
from  the  living  model.  He  felt  the  joy  of  warm  glowing 
flesh,  and  something  of  this  joy  he  has  left  imprisoned 
upon  his  canvases. 

Far  different  are  the  pictures  of  William  Hilton  (1786- 
1839).  He  was  impelled  with  the  same  heroic  ideal ;  his 
compositions  have  more  thought  and  more  refinement,  but 
they  lack  Etty's  personal  instinct  for  colour.  Hilton  lived 
too  late.  As  a  painter  of  religious  frescoes  he  might  have 
achieved  much ;  as  it  is,  his  pictures,  even  at  their  best,  are 
imitations  of  greater  masters.  "  Christ  Crowned  with 
Thorns "  and  "  Nature  Blowing  Bubbles  for  her  Children  " 
both  echo  the  memory  of  past  ideals. 

This  brief,  and  of  necessity  inadequate,  recital  in  no 
way  exhausts  the  early  Victorian  painters  represented  in 
the  Gallery.  Of  the  landscape  workers  we  shall  speak  in 
the  next  chapter,  but  apart  from  these  many  names  have 
been  omitted.  No  mention  has  been  made  of  Sir  Charles 
Eastlake's  Italianised  pictures,  of  the  portrait  by  Hoppner, 
with  its  memory  of  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds,  of  the  eastern 
fables  or  village  scenes  of  Frederick  Goodall,  of  the  fine 

14 


THE    TATE    GALLERY 

architectural  work  of  David  Roberts,  or  of  the  still  life 
studies  of  George  Lance.  I  have  singled  out  the  painters, 
who  to  me  symbolised  most  clearly  the  tendencies  of  their 
age.  Other  workers  may  be  grouped  around  them.  These 
were  years  of  little  personality,  when  pictures  were  first  of 
all  illustrations,  when  sight  was  of  more  importance  than 
insight,  and  art  was  very  safe  and  not  very  ambitious. 

And  yet,  in  the  midst  of  this  iron-bound  following  of 
artistic  convention,  we  here  and  there  catch  a  sign  that 
the  slumber  of  apathy  was  breaking — that  a  fresh  motive 
of  individual  struggle  was  soon  to  endow  English  art 
with  new  vitality.  A  careful  inspection  of  these  early 
pictures  will  often  reveal  unexpected  characteristics.  Let 
us  take  one  or  two  instances.  The  notice  paper  which 
hangs  upon  the  wall  in  Wilkie's  "Parish  Beadle"  is 
painted  with  a  loving  exactitude,  which  suggests  the  work 
of  the  pre-Raphaelites.  "The  Boat  House,"  by  the  sea- 
painter  Edward  Cooke,  is  a  picture  in  which  the  subject  is 
subordinate  to  the  manner  of  treatment.  Again  the  back- 
ground to  Leslie's  "  Uncle  Toby  and  Widow  Wadman  "  is 
entirely  modern ;  there  is  even  a  hint  of  the  impressionists 
in  the  indistinct  lines  of  the  suggested  map,  which  hangs 
behind  the  figures.  Examine  a  small  portrait  of  Mrs.  Anne 
Hawkins,  by  the  landscape  painter,  John  Linnell.  Note 
the  tenderness  of  the  frill  of  white  lace  that  circles  the 
forehead.  How  it  emphasises  the  character  in  this  present- 
ment of  sweet  and  dignified  age. 

Space  will  not  allow  me  to  do  more  than  suggest  these 
thoughts.  We  find  these  pearls  of  originality  when  we 
diligently  seek  them.     There  were  painters  in  this   story- 

25  D 


THE    TATE    GALLERY 

telling  epoch  who  remained  unscathed  by  the  prevailing 
fashion.  William  Dyce,  born  in  the  same  year  as  Maclise, 
found  for  himself  the  truth  of  the  new  birth.  His  work 
we  shall  study  in  a  later  chapter.  It  only  remains  to  speak 
of  John  Philip  (1817-1867),  a  painter  who  worked  in  the 
midst  of  the  old  inspiration  and  yet  retained  the  indi- 
viduality of  his  expression. 

This  artist  did  not  paint  to  illustrate  an  anecdote,  to 
insist  a  moral,  to  teach  a  lesson,  or  to  follow  tradition. 
He  painted  because  he  loved  colour,  and  because  he  joyed 
in  the  scene  he  fashioned.  Nor  was  it  in  the  intention 
of  his  art  only  that  Philip  was  in  advance  of  his  age.  His 
broad  strong  brush-work  and  pure  colour  alone  would 
distinguish  him  from  the  niggling  technique  of  his  fellow 
artists. 

Whence  came  this  difference? 

In  1 85 1  Philip  went  to  Spain,  and  it  is  not  over- 
stating the  truth  to  say  that  he  owed  his  artistic  awaken- 
ing to  Velazquez.  He  understood  what  Wilkie  had  never 
fathomed,  that  the  only  way  to  follow  the  Spanish  master 
was  by  increasing  the  power  of  his  own  vision.  Personality 
is  the  keynote  of  the  painter's  work.  Of  his  three  pictures 
at  Millbank  "The  Prison  Window"  is  the  finest.  It  is  a 
picture  with  a  story,  yet  instinctively  we  realise  it  was  not 
painted  for  that  reason.  The  scene  was  selected  for  its 
pictorial  possibilities,  and  is  realised  in  a  lovely  scheme  of 
colour.  The  beauty  of  the  figures  is  the  outcome  of  the 
painting,  the  paint  is  not  merely  used  to  clothe  them.  It 
is  this  which  places  "Spanish  Philip"  apart,  an  artist  among 
many  painters. 

26 


CHAPTER  III 
THE   EARLY   LANDSCAPE   PAINTERS 


CHAPTER  III 


THE  EARLY   LANDSCAPE   PAINTERS 


HE  earliest  landscape  in  the  Tate  Gallery 
is  the  scene  near  Higham,  Norfolk,  by 
old  John  Crome.  Two  oak  trees  by  a 
road -side,  a  pool  reflecting  some  worn 
palings,  some  wind-driven  stumps,  a  low 
thorn  hedge,  and  behind  a  strong  back- 
ground of  luminous  sky  —  such  is  the  picture,  perfectly 
simple,  and  yet  wholly  complete. 

" '  John,  my  boy ! '  the  old  painter  charged  his  son 
when  he  died,  '  paint,  but  paint  for  fame ;  and  if  your 
subject  is  only  a  pigsty — dignify  it  I'  " 

Here  is  the  artistic  verity  that  in  a  picture  subject  is 
secondary  to  treatment. 

Many  of  the  early  landscape  artists  realised  this  truth, 
and  it  was  this  which  to  a  large  extent  liberated  them 
from  the  conventional  falseness  of  contemporary  painting. 
Probably  their  realisation  was  instinctive,  it  grew  from 
their  joy  in  the  scenes  they  painted  ;  but  their  work  gained, 
rather  than  lost,  from  their  unconsciousness.  Nature  love 
has  always  been  a  deep-rooted  instinct  among  the  British 
people.  No  other  nation  except  the  Dutch  have  the  same 
genuine  and  widespread  appreciation  of  local  scenery.     And 

29 


PICTURES   IN 

this  universal,  this  inherent  impulse  was  the  inspiration  of 
English  landscape  art. 

It  must  not  be  thought  that  the  Claudian  ideal  of 
traditional  classicism  was  dead.  Richard  Wilson,  the  artist 
who  first  painted  light,  and  the  earliest  English  landscapist 
of  moment,  regarded  Nature  as  a  grand  background  for 
heroic  effects.  His  love  of  scenic  grandeur  at  times  led 
him  into  unconscious  humour.  He  was  commanded  by 
George  HI.  to  execute  a  picture  of  Kew  Gardens ;  the  scene 
produced  was  an  Italian  vista,  warmed  by  a  brilliant  southern 
sun !  But  the  immediate  influence  Wilson  exercised  was 
slight.  Landscape  art  found  a  truer  sire  in  Thomas  Gains- 
borough, and  by  his  example  a  new  element  was  intro- 
duced into  Nature  painting.  For  the  first  time  English 
scenery  was  painted  for  its  local  interest,  in  relation  to 
rural  life.  Naturally,  much  of  this  painter's  work  was 
guided  by  the  spirit  of  the  moment,  but  he  was  a  sincere 
student  of  Nature,  and  a  large  proportion  of  his  achieve- 
ment bears  the  imprint  of  this  inspiration.  Gainsborough 
painted  the  impression  of  Nature  as  reflected  in  his  own 
mind,  and  by  thus  doing  he  gave  the  first  blow  to  those 
scenes  of  make-believe  that  had  been  built  by  the  hand  of 
tradition. 

Gainsborough  died  in  1788,  twelve  years  after  Constable 
was  born,  and  at  the  time  Crome  was  still  painting  true 
landscape  in  Norfolk.  The  young  painter  Constable  trod 
in  their  footprints,  intensifying  the  love  of  local  scenery 
with  the  power  of  his  personal  interpretation. 

"When  I  sit  down  to  paint  a  point  of  view  I  have 
chosen,  I  first  strive  to  forget  I  have  ever  seen  a  picture." 

30 


THE   TATE   GALLERY 

This  was  the  spirit  in  which  Constable  worked.  He 
realised  the  wondrous  play  of  light,  and  this  turned  his 
landscapes  into  living  scenes.  Slowly  he  fought  his  way 
through  strong  opposition,  refusing  to  paint  brown  where 
he  saw  green.  He  discarded  the  customary  tree,  the  last 
fetish  of  arranged  landscape. 

"  I  paint  for  posterity,"  he  cried  with  the  firm  faith  of 
strong  genius.  And  the  prophecy  was  true.  Constable's 
painting  worked  a  revolution,  which  changed  the  landscape 
ideal  not  only  in  England  but  also  in  France.  In  that 
country  the  fruit  of  his  example  yielded  a  full  and  im- 
mediate harvest  in  the  work  of  the  Barbizon  painters. 

Five  small  canvases  by  Constable  enrich  the  Tate 
Gallery.  To  see  his  most  important  pictures  we  must  go 
to  the  National  Gallery,  but  his  least  sketch  gives  a  very 
complete  idea  of  the  personality  of  his  work.  Three  of 
the  scenes  were  painted  near  his  early  home  in  Suffolk, 
"The  House  where  the  Artist  was  born,"  "The  Bridge  at 
Gillingham,"  and  "  The  Church  Porch  at  Bergholt."  Two 
are  views  of  Hampstead  Heath,  while  one  is  a  seascape 
of  the  old  wooden  look-out  house  at  Harwich.  They  are 
small  transcripts  of  the  views  depicted,  made  beautiful  by 
the  truth  of  colour,  and  by  the  rare  quality  of  atmosphere. 
We  see  each  scene  as  it  was  mirrored  in  the  painter's 
vision. 

"The  Salt  Box,  Hampstead  Heath"  is  low  in  tone, 
and  yet  it  is  full  of  light,  the  glad  warm  light  of  hot 
summer.  The  sky  is  limpid  blue,  flecked  with  clouds  of 
soft  grey,  while  the  horizon  is  a  deep  blue.  Perhaps  the 
near  trees  are  a  little  heavy,  but  the  grass  is  a  fresh  green. 

3> 


PICTURES    IN 

A  road  and  the  gravel  pit  in  the  foreground  are  painted  in 
tones  that  are  warm  and  yet  subdued.  A  gleam  of  colour 
is  given  by  a  man's  red  jacket,  while  the  whole  scheme  is 
relieved  by  the  white  sleeve  of  the  man's  shirt,  and  this 
note  is  repeated  in  the  light  wall  of  the  house  in  the 
middle  distance.  The  picture  has  the  inevitable  charm 
of  a  beautiful  and  personally  realised  scene. 

No  solitary  example  of  Turner's  work  enriches  the  Tate 
Gallery,  yet  one  word  about  the  great  master  it  is  neces- 
sary to  say.  His  genius  was  so  personal,  so  entirely  the 
outgrowth  of  inspiration,  that  he  stands  alone,  a  Titan, 
impossible  to  imitate  and  difficult  to  follow.  Probably 
the  only  picture  in  the  Tate  Gallery  which  directly  shows 
his  influence,  is  the  water-colour  painting  of  Windsor 
Castle,  by  Alfred  Hunt,  the  modern  disciple  of  his  manner. 
Turner  formed  no  school  of  landscape  art,  and  his  paint- 
ing belongs  to  the  world  rather  than  to  any  country. 

In  these  years  a  new  standard  for  landscape  art  arose 
in  England,  fostered,  as  we  have  seen,  by  the  influence  of 
Constable  and  John  Crome.  Reality  of  vision  now  walked 
hand  in  hand  with  the  relics  of  lingering  tradition. 

A  curious  illustration  of  these  dual  influences  is  seen 
in  "The  Valley  of  the  Yare,"  the  picture  by  James  Stark 
(1794-1859),  a  pupil  of  old  Crome.  Here  we  find  Nature 
upon  the  right,  and  tradition  upon  the  left,  two  distinct 
manners  united  in  one  canvas.  The  undulating  ground, 
with  its  cornfield  and  meadow-land,  the  Jtrees,  the  road 
down  which  a  cart  and  a  band  of  reapers  are  passing, 
form  a  calm  rustic  scene,  painted  in  the  spirit  of  the 
Norwich  master.     In  the  opposite  half  of  the   canvas,  on 

3a 


THE    TATE    GALLERY 

the  other  hand,  we  see  a  regulation  ruin  rising  in  the 
midst  of  a  landscape,  arranged  in  scenic  panorama.  Cut 
the  picture  into  two,  and  one  half  would  seem  to  be  an 
early  study  by  Crome,  while  the  other  would  appear  a 
bad  copy  of  a  classic  scene. 

This  intermingling  of  motives  may  be^  traced  in  many 
early  landscapes.  "The  Temples  of  Poestum,"  by  William 
Linton  (1791-1876),  is  one  of  the  last  instances  of  a  large 
scene  painted  entirely  in  "the  grand  style."  Its  feebleness 
proves  how  surely  the  old  order  was  waning.  A  memory 
of  Gainsborough's  sweetness  lingers  in  Thomas  Creswick's 
(181 1-1869)  "  Pathway  to  the  Village  Church."  The  colour- 
ing is  raw  and  dull.  "  Creswick  tries  for  real  green,  but 
ends  in  green  paint  instead  of  green  light,"  was  the  remark 
of  Ruskin.  To  how  many  painters  could  not  this  verdict 
be  applied? 

Greater  individuality  will  be  seen  in  the  pictures  of 
John  Linnell  (i  792-1882),  whose  work  as  a  portrait-painter 
we  have  already  noted.  In  his  landscapes  Linnell  was  a 
mannerist,  hovering  midway  between  the  new  and  the  old 
ideals.  To  a  certain  extent  his  style  was  moulded  by  his 
master,  John  Varley,  a  foundation  member  of  the  Old 
Water-Colour  Society.  But  the  truth  is  Linnell  had  two 
sides  to  his  art ;  in  one  he  was  bound  by  the  old  accepted 
canons  of  what  a  landscape  ought  to  contain,  and  how  it 
ought  to  look;  in  the  other  an  out-of-door  freshness,  a 
breeziness  of  the  fields,  saved  his  work  from  triviality. 
The  same  diversity  may  be  traced  in  his  actual  handling. 
In  one  scene  we  are  charmed  by  the  glowing  colour  and 
the  free  strong  brush-work,  in  another  the  tints  are  dull 

33  ^ 


PICTURES    IN 

and  unmeaning  and  the  manner  of  painting  coarse  and 
heavy.  Often  in  the  same  canvas  we  are  repelled  and 
delighted.  In  "The  Windmill"  the  clouds  are  drawn 
with  modern  vigour,  every  plane  is  absolutely  true,  but 
the  light  that  breaks  the  dark  cumuli  of  the  sky  is  forced ; 
a  fine  effect  is  spoilt  and  a  simple  scene  is  made  theatrical. 
In  many  of  his  pictures  the  figures  are  out  of  scale,  and 
in  most  cases  the  landscape  would  be  better  were  they 
removed.  Never  is  Linnell's  art  great,  yet  his  pictures 
have  profound  interest,  for  in  them  we  see  the  first  example 
of  the  new  manner  applied  to  the  old  scenes,  with  their 
want  of  imagination.  His  work  is  a  kind  of  bridge  sus- 
pended between  the  past  and  the  present. 

In  the  midst  of  this  duality  of  motive,  a  few  painters 
worked  who  were  endowed  with  more  distinctive  person- 
ality. William  Miiller  (i8i 2-1845),  Richard  Parkes  Bon- 
ington  (1801-1828),  Paul  Falconer  Poole  (1807-1879),  and 
Clarkson  Stanfield  (1793-1867),  are  unlike  in  all  else,  but 
in  this  they  are  united — they  worked  with  little  regard  to 
the  prevailing  artistic  tendencies.  This  is  true  in  full  of 
the  first  two  painters,  and  in  a  modified  measure  of  Poole 
and  Stanfield. 

No  one  can  look  at  Miiller's  pictures  without  being 
strongly  conscious  of  their  personality.  I  remember  the 
first  time  I  saw  his  "  Street  Scene  in  Cairo "  I  did 
not  then  know  his  work,  but  at  once  it  became  a  reality 
to  me.  Immediately  I  sought  his  other  pictures,  and  in 
each  I  recognised  the  same  strong  expression.  The  work 
was  not  technically  perfect,  but  it  was  alive — alive  with 
glowing  colour  and  strong  free  handling. 

34 


THE    TATE    GALLERY 

"  I  paint  in  oil  on  the  spot,"  Muller  wrote  in  1842. 
'*  I  am  convinced  of  the  actual  necessity  of  looking  at 
Nature."  And  again,  "  I  want  to  paint ;  it  is  oozing  out 
of  my  fingers." 

This  is  the  voice  which  speaks  from  Miiller's  works. 

Note  the  chord  of  strong  colour  in  that  Eastern  street 
scene — the  flaming  sky,  gold  red  between  those  piles  of 
buildings.  At  a  first  swift  glance  the  canvas  gleams  with 
fire  ;  the  colour  is  very  pure,  the  touch  is  absolutely  cer- 
tain, everything  is  toned  down  to  enhance  the  glory  of 
that  central  glow. 

Now  look  at  a  small  canvas  called  "  A  Landscape :  a 
River  Scene."  Miiller's  pictures  leap  forward  for  half  a 
century.  It  is  a  very  modern  subject  handled  in  a  modern 
manner.  There  is  no  forced  note,  no  building-up  of  a 
picture,  no  figure  is  introduced  to  interfere  with  the  wildness 
of  the  scene — nothing  except  rocks  and  turbid,  hurling 
water,  while  behind  is  a  sky,  dark  with  the  black  gloom  of 
night.  It  is  a  transcript  wrested  from  Nature  without  em- 
bellishment. Miiller  died  at  thirty-three,  literally  consumed 
by  the  passion  to  create.  He  never  gained  recognition, 
and  his  failure  saddened  his  life. 

Very  similar  was  the  history  of  Richard  Parkes  Boning- 
ton.  He  too  died  in  early  manhood,  and  his  power  was 
unrecognised  by  his  country.  "  England  has  too  lightly 
yielded  us  the  glory  of  this  young  genius,"  writes  M. 
Chesneau  in  The  English  Sc/tool  of  Painting.  At  the  age 
of  fifteen  Bonington  went  to  France,  where  he  first  copied 
pictures  in  the  Louvre,  and  afterwards  worked  in  the  studio 
of  Baron  Gros.     In  spite  of  this  training  Bonington  never 

35 


PICTURES    IN 

acquired  a  French  manner.  He  spent  his  life  in  France 
and  Italy,  and  yet  his  work  was  always  unmistakably 
English.  His  pictures  are  painted  with  pure  strong  colour, 
while  he  frequently  worked  in  water-colour,  the  distinctive 
English  medium.  In  fine,  Bonington  gave  to  France  far 
more  than  he  absorbed.  His  years  of  work  aided  the 
revolution  Constable  effected,  and  young  as  he  was,  his 
inspiration  was  acknowledged  in  French  landscape. 

"  The  Column  of  St.  Mark's,  Venice,"  and  a  small  water- 
colour  study  of  "Old  Cheyne  Walk,  Chelsea,"  his  two 
pictures  at  Millbank,  do  not  reveal  all  the  greatness  of  his 
power.  Yet  the  Venetian  scene  is  notable  for  its  full  clear 
colour  and  strong  brush-work.  Many  of  his  works  are  in 
the  Wallace  Collection.  A  picture  of  "Margaret  of  Navarre 
and  Francis  I,"  is  a  supreme  example  of  his  skill  in  historical 
genre.  His  sketch-book  and  several  brilliant  drawings  may 
be  seen  in  the  Print  Room  of  the  British  Museum. 

Paul  Falconer  Poole  was  more  conscious  of  the  influence 
of  his  contemporaries.  His  work  is  a  combination  of 
tradition  and  realism,  translated  into  a  personal  language 
of  mystic  fancy.  Often  he  fails  as  a  painter;  he  was  self- 
trained,  and  his  figures,  though  carefully  drawn,  are  generally 
feeble,  while  his  faces  are  invariably  expressionless.  Yet 
we  forgive  much  for  the  thought  hidden  in  the  work.  At 
times  his  scenes  are  almost  grand.  A  weird  earnestness 
characterises  his  landscape,  and  here  and  there  in  the  colour 
we  catch  a  hint  of  Venetian  splendour. 

"The  Vision  of  Ezekiel"  illustrates  his  limitations  and 
his  strange  power.  It  is  not  a  literal  study;  it  is  a  scene 
of  fancy  woven  from  the  prophet's  words:    "And  I  looked, 

36 


THE   TATE   GALLERY 

and  behold  a  whirlwind  came  from  the  north,  a  great 
cloud,  and  a  fire  unfolding  itself. " 

There  is  something  very  nearly  great  in  this  fiery  storm- 
tossed  scene  of  realised  fancy.  Poole  is  one  of  the  few 
English  painters  who  have  attempted  imaginative  land- 
scape. His  modern  representative  is  Albert  Goodwin, 
whose  scenes  of  fairy  fancy  may  be  studied  at  Millbank. 
Possibly  if  their  pictures  fail,  the  failure  arises  from  the 
fact  that  they  have  tried  to  paint  scenes  that  are  un- 
paintable. 

Over  the  work  of  Clarkson  Stansfield  it  is  unnecessary 
to  linger.  He  is  noted  as  the  first  English  painter  of  the 
sea.  He  worked  patiently  from  Nature,  and  his  boats  are 
always  well  painted,  while  his  matter-of-fact  seas  are  true, 
if  a  little  commonplace.  He  misses  the  poetry  of  deep 
waters,  nor  does  he  realise  the  sea's  colour.  His  work  is 
photographic  and  without  personal  illumination,  while  his 
skies  are  cold  and  dull  in  tone. 

No  mention  has  yet  been  made  of  the  water-colour 
painters.  There  is  no  question  that  the  birth  of  water- 
colour  painting  as  a  distinct  art,  in  the  middle  years  of 
the  eighteenth  century,  was  an  event  with  few  parallels 
in  the  history  of  painting.  But  we  may  not  dwell  here 
upon  this  awakening,  so  pregnant  with  good  in  its  effect 
upon  landscape  work.  Unfortunately  the  water-colour 
paintings  in  the  Tate  Gallery  are  few,  and  even  among 
these  the  majority  are  unimportant.  Several  architectural 
studies  by  Paul  Sandby,  a  design  for  the  Freemasons'  Hall 
by  his  brother  Thomas,  two  slight  seascapes  by  John 
Varley,   a  number  of  studies   in   charcoal   and   sepia,   and 

37 


THE    TATE    GALLERY 

one  fine  water-colour  by  George  Cattermole,  a  trio  of  small 
sketches  by  David  Cox,  and  a  scene  in  Richmond  Park  by 
William  Bennet,  have  been  recently  presented  to  the  Gallery. 
They  convey  little  idea  of  the  power  and  beauty  of  this 
distinctly  English  art.  Perhaps  the  most  beautiful  of  the 
old  water-colours  is  an  exquisite  little  view  of  Sussex  by 
Copley  Fielding. 


38 


CHAPTER  IV 

LANDSCAPE   PAINTERS 

GEORGE   VICAT   COLE   (1833-1893) 

JOHN   MACWHIRTER   (born    1839) 


c 


CHAPTER  IV 

LANDSCAPE  PAINTERS:  GEORGE  VICAT  COLE  (1833-1893); 
JOHN  MACWHIRTER  (Born   1839) 


N  the  last  chapter  we  have  traced  the 
record  of  landscape  art  during  the  first 
half  of  the  nineteenth  century.  We  have 
seen  the  conflict  between  tradition,  and 
naturalism,  wherein  the  victory  in  the 
main  was  with  the  latter.  But  this 
triumph  of  Nature-study  carried  an  attendant  danger 
in  its  track.  Gradually  a  tendency  arose  to  substitute 
reproduction  for  interpretation,  and  in  this  way  a  realism 
of  surface  became  the  aim  of  the  landscape  painters.  In 
their  effort  to  copy  Nature  they  lost  breadth  of  insight; 
they  painted  in  detached  local  colour  and  forgot  the 
subtlety  of  light.  And  in  this  way  landscape  art  tended 
to  lose  individuality,  almost  as  surely  as  by  the  old 
ideals  of  classic  presentment.  It  is  not  the  function  of  a 
painted  scene  to  be  a  photographic  duplicate  of  Nature. 
The  truer  aim  of  a  picture  is  to  show  us  what  the  artist 
saw,  that  which  he  saw  as  no  other  man  could  see  it ; 
indeed,  the  power  of  a  landscape  depends  upon  the 
depth  and  freshness  of  this  realisation.  The  work  of 
many   painters   testifies  that   this   worship  of  the  outward 

41  F 


PICTURES    IN 

form  of  Nature  was  a  very  real  danger  at  this  period. 
Vicat  Cole  and  Sidney  Cooper,  among  many  others, 
belong  to  this  group  of  little  selective  and  unimaginative 
landscape  painters. 

I  have  classified  these  two  artists  together  because 
they  were  impelled  by  the  same  spirit.  They  are  the 
veritable  artistic  offspring  of  Linnell.  Their  manner  of 
painting  is  modern ;  they  each  worked  directly  from  Nature, 
but  what  they  missed  was  the  power  of  true,  and  yet 
creative,  realisation.  Endowed  in  a  large  measure  with 
sight  they  possessed  little  insight.  Sidney  Cooper  painted 
cattle,  Vicat  Cole  Surrey  landscapes  and  Thames  vistas. 
These  pictures  are  always  pretty  and  well  drawn,  yet  we 
miss  something,  for  the  bright  colour  has  no  true  effect  of 
sunlight,  while  the  realisation  of  the  scene  shows  us 
less,  not  more,  than  we  could  have  noted  for  ourselves. 

It  is  interesting  to  trace  the  varied  sources  from  which 
Vicat  Cole  drew  his  early  inspiration.  His  teacher  was 
his  father,  Mr.  George  Cole,  Vice-President  of  the  Society 
of  British  Artists,  an  animal  and  landscape  painter  of 
some  note.  The  artistic  ideals  of  his  son  were  Constable, 
Cox,  and  Turner,  and  while  still  a  boy  he  made  many 
diligent  copies  of  their  work  in  black  and  white.  Upon 
this  somewhat  eclectic  foundation  Vicat  Cole  moulded 
his  expression.  He  was  a  rapid  worker,  innumerable 
out-of-door  studies  were  taken  in  addition  to  detailed 
nature  notes,  especially  of  atmospheric  effects.  Many 
of  these  sketches  are  reproduced  in  the  interesting  Mono- 
graph upon  the  painter's  work  by  his  brother-in-law, 
Mr.    R.    Chignell.      He   tells   us   that  at  first   the  painter 

42 


THE   TATE   GALLERY 

finished  his  pictures  in  the  fields,  but  that  in  later  years 
he  worked   in   the   studio    from    sketches   taken   upon   the 

spot. 

At  the  age  of  nineteen  Vicat  Cole's  first  picture,  "  A 
Surrey  Common,"  was  exhibited  at  the  Royal  Institute 
of  British  Artists,  but  it  was  not  until  i860  that  his  work 
gained  attention.  In  that  year  a  picture  of  "A  Surrey 
Cornfield,"  which  had  been  sent  to  the  Academy,  was 
universally  praised.  From  this  time  the  painter's  career 
was  one  of  continued  success.  Each  season  his  Surrey 
scenes,  with  their  pastoral  picturesqueness  became  more 
popular.  Millais  writing  of  one  of  these  pictures  describes 
it  as  "A  sea  of  golden  corn  in  the  slanting  rays  of  the 
sunset." 

A  typical  instance  of  these  English  pastorals  is  "  An 
Autumn  Morning,"  the  painter's  diploma  picture,  now  at 
Burlington  House.  It  is  an  unmistakable  Surrey  land- 
scape of  corn  and  mist,  with  bright  autumnal  colouring. 

The  year  1881  was  an  important  one  in  Vicat  Cole's 
life.  At  the  suggestion  of  Mr.  Agnew  he  undertook  to 
complete  a  series  of  pictures  illustrating  the  Thames  from 
its  source  to  the  sea.  He  bent  the  entire  energy  of  his 
nature  to  this  work,  which,  his  biographer  tells  us,  he 
regarded  as  a  national  one.  From  this  year  until  his 
death  in  1893  he  passed  much  of  his  time  in  his  floating- 
studio,  the  steam-launch  Blanche.  Here  he  made  innum- 
erable sketches  of  the  river  banks,  of  stretches  of  water, 
and  of  varied  effects  of  weather,  all  of  which  were  after- 
wards used  in  painting  his  pictures. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  trace  the  history  of  these  scenes. 

43 


PICTURES    IN 

Every  place  of  interest  was  pictured.  "  He  followed  the 
stream  with  faithful  brush  throughout  its  length." 

"  The  Pool  of  London,"  now  in  the  National  Collection, 
is  the  most  important  picture  of  the  series.  For  long 
Vicat  Cole  had  desired  to  paint  this  scene.  Mr.  Chignell 
tells  us  that  as  early  as  1878,  ten  years  before  the  picture 
was  completed,  an  entry  appears  in  his  diary,  stating  that 
he  was  "designing  for  a  large  picture  of  the  Pool." 

Without  doubt  this  picture  is  Vicat  Cole's  finest  work. 
It  is  a  scenic  rather  than  a  realistic  representation  of  the 
river,  wherein  landscape  smoke  and  sky  are  arranged  to 
correspond  with  the  painter's  design.  The  conception  has 
more  poetry  and  depth  than  the  Surrey  landscapes.  The 
work  is  picturesque  and  romantic,  but  it  is  not  imaginative. 

To  realise  the  full  force  of  this  fact,  it  is  only  necessary 
to  compare  "  The  Pool "  with  another  picture  of  almost 
the  same  scene  also  in  the  Gallery.  Mr.  W.  L.  Wyllie's 
"Toil,  Glitter,  Grime  and  Wealth  on  a  Flowing  Tide" 
depicts  the  river  just  below  the  Pool.  In  this  realisation 
nothing  is  changed,  every  detail  is  painted  literally,  but 
the  scene  is  illumined  by  the  interpretation  of  the  artist's 
vision.  The  two  pictures  illustrate  the  gulf  that  rests 
between  depicting  a  scene  and  translating,  an  effect  of 
Nature. 

A  new  vitality  was  brought  into  landscape  painting  by 
the  rise  of  the  Scottish  school  in  the  middle  years  of  the 
century.  In  a  later  chapter  I  shall  speak  again,  and  more 
fully,  of  this  new  force  in  British  art.  At  that  point  we 
shall  have  reached  the  event  in  its  true  chronological  order, 

44 


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THE    TATE    GALLERY 

for  the  Scottish  school  belongs  to  a  period  after  the  pre- 
Raphaelite  revival.  But  in  art  history  a  limit  of  dates  is 
often  arbitrary,  and  the  mid-century  British  landscapists 
belong  to  the  old  ideal  of  art  rather  than  to  the  new.  They 
clung  to  the  realism  of  form ;  they  did  not  comprehend  the 
truer  realism  of  personal  impression. 

John  MacWhirter  and  Peter  Graham  were  the  chief 
landscapists  of  the  Scottish  movement.  Broadly  speaking, 
the  aim  of  all  the  young  Scotch  painters  was  to  obtain 
colour  in  their  work.  Through  the  influence  of  their  master, 
Robert  Scott  Lauder,  they  had  become  conscious  of  the 
glowing  splendour  of  Venetian  colour.  To  effect  their 
purpose  they  painted  in  detached  shades  of  rich  local  colour, 
interlacing  their  tints  much  in  the  same  manner  as  a 
weaver  of  rich  stuffs  entwines  his  threads.  The  landscape 
workers  strove  to  obtain  the  glistening  effect  of  an  out-of- 
door  scene  by  rendering  every  colour  in  detail ;  following 
the  doctrine  of  Mr,  Ruskin,  they  toiled  after  the  infinity 
of  Nature.  But  in  their  effort  to  obtain  colour,  they  forgot 
the  subtlety  of  light ;  each  object  was  faithfully  imitated 
with  its  own  actual  colour,  but  the  unity  of  the  whole 
scheme  was  rarely  attained.  Their  landscapes  are  a  mass 
of  beautifully  isolated  tints  rather  than  a  coherent  effect  of 
colour  harmony. 

The  result  of  this  insistence  upon  detailed  colour  is 
also  manifest  in  their  design.  VVe  see  it  in  their  treatment 
of  light  and  shade,  in  their  choice  of  subject ;  indeed  it  con- 
trols every  department  of  their  work.  They  did  not  see 
their  landscapes  as  an  entire  image  mirrored  in  their  imagi- 
nation,  but  as  a  series  of  colour  results  to  be  carefully 

45 


PICTURES    IN 

noted.  And  thus  they  show  us  in  their  pictures  a  number 
of  elaborately  arranged  effects,  but  they  fail  to  convey  to 
us  an  impression  of  the  scene.  They  are  recorders  and 
not  interpreters  of  Nature.  And  it  is  for  this  reason  I 
have  said  their  realism  was  still  the  realism  of  outward 
form. 

A  further  result  of  this  sectional  and  limited  outlook 
upon  Nature  was  a  tendency  to  regard  a  landscape  from 
the  conventional  standpoint.  Originality  of  artistic  in- 
sight does  not  result  from  chronicling  incidents,  however 
beautiful  they  may  be,  but  from  meditating  upon  them, 
until  they  are  seen  in  a  new  and  illumined  aspect. 

Thus  we  must  expect  from  the  Scotch  landscapists  the 
preconceived  idea  of  the  places  they  paint.  Peter  Graham's 
Highland  scenes  are  always  misty  or  rainy,  while  his  rivers 
are  always  in  spate. 

In  the  work  of  J.  MacWhirter  there  is  greater  diversity, 
and  probably  he  was  the  first  to  paint  Swiss  flowers, 
but  he  also  has  cared  more  for  conventional  beauty  of 
detail  than  for  largeness  of  impression.  His  Scotch  scenes, 
his  Italian  vistas,  and  his  Swiss  meadows  are  all  pretty, 
but  they  have  not  the  breadth  of  a  scene  realised  as  one 
complete  vision,  and  none  of  his  work  attains  greatness. 
Compare  his  studies  of  trees  with  the  trees  of  Cecil 
Lawson  and  this  difference  will  at  once  be  felt.  One 
painter  gives  us  a  picture  of  a  tree,  the  other  the  tree 
itself,  standing  encircled  with  light. 

The  Life  of  John  MacWhirter  is  marked  by  no  in- 
cidents of  striking  moment.  His  deep  love  of  Nature, 
and    especially  of    trees   and   flowers,   was   inherited    from 

46 


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THE   TATE   GALLERY 

his  father,  Mr.  George  MacWhirter,  a  paper-maker  of 
Colinton,  Edinburgh.  The  boy  always  seems  to  have 
been  able  to  draw,  and  his  first  picture,  "  An  Old  Cottage 
at  Braid,"  was  exhibited  at  the  Royal  Scottish  Academy 
in  1854,  before  he  had  attained  his  fifteenth  year.  We  have 
already  spoken  of  his  training  in  the  Trustees  Academy, 
under  the  able  mastership  of  Robert  Scott  Lauder.  Among 
his  fellow  students  were  Orchardson,  Pettie,  Peter  Graham, 
Tom  Graham,  William  MacTaggart,  John  Hutchinson, 
and  others,  the  young  founders  of  the  Scotch  school.  Rare, 
indeed,  is  it  for  such  a  group  of  painters  to  be  gathered 
around  one  master.  In  1865  a  picture  of  "The  Temple 
of  Vesta,  Rome  "  was  hung  in  the  English  Academy,  and 
a  few  years  later  MacWhirter  came  to  live  in  London. 

"June  in  the  Austrian  Tyrol"  was  exhibited  at  the 
Academy  in  1892.  The  picture  is  a  view  of  Gosaw,  in 
the  Salzkammergut.  But  the  location  of  the  scene  matters 
little,  for  the  work  is  not  an  impression  of  a  place ;  it  is 
a  beautiful  rendering  of  a  meadow  foreground.  The  vast 
power  of  a  land  of  snow-wreathed  mountains  is  not  given 
to  us  in  the  picture.  The  greatest  themes  cannot  be  de- 
tailed ;  the  grandeur  of  Switzerland  can  only  be  realised 
as  an  impression  that  has  been  seized  and  afterwards  in- 
terpreted. To  those  who  know  the  exquisite  Swiss  moun- 
tain vistas  of  Mr.  Millie  Dow  this  fact  will  at  once  be 
clear.  In  this  picture  the  beauty  does  not  rest  in  the 
mountain  background,  but  in  its  meadows,  bordered  in 
blue  and  white  with  unnumbered  flowers.  The  sparkling 
tints  of  colour  have  something  of  the  iridescent  sheen  of 
Nature. 

47 


THE    TATE    GALLERY 

We  are  reminded  of  another  foreground  of  flowers, 
painted  in  words  by  Mr.  Ruskin  :  "There  sprang  up  year 
by  year  such  a  company  of  joyful  flowers  as  I  know  not 
the  like  of,  among  all  the  blessings  of  the  earth.  It  was 
springtime,  too,  and  all  were  coming  forth  in  clusters, 
crowded  for  very  love ;  there  was  room  enough  for  all,  but 
they  crushed  their  leaves  into  all  manner  of  strange  shapes, 
only  to  be  near  each  other.  There  was  the  wood  anemone, 
star  after  star,  closing  now  and  then  into  nebulae ;  and 
there  was  the  oxalis,  troop  by  troop,  like  virginal  proces- 
sions of  the  mois  de  Marie,  and  ever  and  anon  a  blue  gush 
of  violets  and  cowslip-bells  in  sunny  places ;  and  in  the 
more  open  ground  the  vetch,  and  comfrey,  and  mezereon, 
and  the  small  sapphire  buds  of  the  Polygala  Alpina,  and 
the  wild  strawberry,  just  a  blossom  or  two,  all  showered 
amid  the  golden  softness  of  deep,  warm,  amber-coloured 
moss." 


48 


CHAPTER  V 

THE    FORERUNNERS    OF   THE 
PRE-RAPHAELITE   REVIVAL 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  FORERUNNERS  OF  THE  PRE-RAPHAEUTE  REVIVAL: 
WILLIAM  DYCE  (1806-1864);  J.  F.  LEWIS  (1805- 
1876);    FORD   MADOX   BROWN   (i 821-1893) 


E  must  now  return  to  the  opening  years 
of  the  nineteenth  century,  to  the  period 
of  conflict  when  Nature  and  Tradition 
were  still  striving  for  the  artistic  arena. 
It  has  seemed  necessary  to  dwell  at  some 
length  in  what  we  may  call  the  vestibule 
of  British  art.  Only  by  realising  the  character  of  our 
national  painting,  in  this  stage  of  its  development,  is  it 
possible  to  appreciate  the  effect  of  the  pre-Raphaelite  move- 
ment. I  have  striven  to  point  out  how  amidst  tradition, 
classicism,  story -telling,  prosaic  landscape,  and  all  the 
fetters  of  commonplace  expression,  individuality  was  not 
dead.  Again  and  again  we  have  met  curious  anticipations 
of  the  new  ideal ;  the  seeds  were  hidden,  but  they  were  in 
the  ground  waiting  to  germinate. 

"William  Dyce  must  be  ranked  among  the  pre- 
Raphaelites,"  writes  Mr.  J.  E.  Hodgson  in  his  interesting 
pamphlet  Fifty  Years  of  British  Art. 

The  truth  of  this  estimate  may  readily  be  proved  by 
studying  "  Pegwell  Bay,"  and  "  St.  John  leading  the  Virgin 

5» 


PICTURES    IN 

from  the  Tomb,"  Dyce's  two  pictures  in  the  Tate  Gallery, 
It  will  be  noted  that  I  use  the  word  "study."  This  I  do 
advisedly.  Speaking  in  his  Academy  Notes  of  1857,  of  a 
picture  by  William  Dyce,  Mr.  Ruskin  wrote,  "  It  will  take 
about  an  hour  to  see  it  properly."  This  appreciation  is 
absolutely  true ;  the  pictures  of  this  painter  must  be 
studied  and  not  merely  looked  at. 

Description  is  of  little  avail  in  speaking  of  such  work, 
its  merit  is  too  thoughtful ;  its  extreme  reserve  and  abso- 
lute quietness  will  not  readily  permit  of  illustration.  How 
personal  is  the  conception,  how  intimate  the  manner  of 
rendering,  how  careful  is  the  brush-work,  and  yet  how  free! 
Notice  in  his  sacred  picture  the  purity  of  the  colours,  the 
absolute  sincerity  in  the  painting  of  the  details.  Each 
spine  of  the  fleshy-leaved  cactus,  the  down  of  the  thistle- 
seed,  every  minute  feature  of  the  foreground  is  exquisitely 
realised.  The  flowing  strands  of  the  Virgin's  hair,  the 
embroidery  of  the  dresses,  the  marked  tiles  that  circle  the 
tomb,  all  are  faithfully  painted.  Yet  the  scene  is  not  a 
copy  of  Nature,  it  is  rather  an  interpretation.  The  quiet 
beauty  of  the  Virgin  is  conceived  with  the  utmost  simplicity 
and  power.  Her  figure  is  draped  in  a  robe  of  clear  red, 
half  covered  with  a  cloak  of  dark  pure  blue ;  she  carries  in 
her  hand  the  Crown  of  Thorns  that  has  wounded  her  Son. 
Her  face  has  something  of  the  combined  mystery,  pathos, 
sorrow  and  simplicity  that  inspires  the  Virgins  of  the 
Primitives  in  Italian  painting. 

The  conception  of  St.  John  has  less  power ;  the  drapery 
that  shrouds  his  feet  is  stiff,  and  we  do  not  realise  the 
limbs  that  move  beneath  the  folds.     The  weak  drawing  of 

52 


THE    TATE    GALLERY 

the  four  figures  in  the  distance  may  also  be  criticised.  But 
these  defects  count  for  little ;  they  are  forgotten  in  the 
supreme  dignity  of  the  work. 

This  sincerity  and  quietness  is  also  apparent  in  the 
picture  of  "  Peg^vell  Bay."  It  is  unnecessary  to  particularise 
the  details  of  the  scene.  The  paint  is  laid  thinly  upon 
the  canvas  with  sable  brushes,  and  this  gives  the  work 
something  of  the  translucent  brightness  of  a  water-colour. 
Beauty  is  gained  by  the  mastery  of  the  aerial  perspective. 
The  true  values  of  the  colours  in  their  relation  to  light 
are  perfectly  given ;  there  is  no  forced  note,  and  the 
harmony  of  the  work  is  complete. 

Holman  Hunt  speaks  of  Dyce's  painting  as  being 
"  most  profoundly  trained  and  cultivated."  *'  Had  he  had  a 
better  chance  he  might  have  influenced  the  English  school 
strongly,"  is  the  estimate  of  the  pre-Raphaelite.  Yet  Wil- 
liam Dyce  never  gained  fame ;  and  the  sum  total  of  his  re- 
cord was  disappointment,  and  his  work  remained  unnoticed. 

Mr.  Ruskin  has  acclaimed  J.  F.  Lewis  as  the  pioneer 
of  the  pre-Raphaelite  movement.  In  the  Arrows  of  the 
Chace  he  writes :  "  J.  F.  Lewis  worked  with  the  sternest 
precision  twenty  years  before  Pre-Raphaelitism  had  ever 
been  heard  of;  pursued  calmly  the  same  principles, 
developed  by  himself,  for  himself,  through  years  of  lonely 
labour  in  Syria."  Mr.  Ruskin  speaks  of  his  work  as 
"exquisitely  and  ineffably  right,"  while  again  he  says,  "It 
is  amazing  that  there  should  be  so  Much,  but  far  more 
amazing  that  this  Much  should  be  all  right." 

But  careful  multiplicity  of  detail,  however  beautiful  and 
however  right,  will  not  in  itself  produce  a  work  of  art.     It 

53 


PICTURES    IN 

is  not  the  aim  of  a  picture  to  enter  into  competition  with 
Nature.  True  art  interprets,  it  does  not  reproduce.  J.  F. 
Lewis  may  have  anticipated  the  pre-Raphaelite  manner 
of  realising  a  scene  in  detail  exactly  as  it  exists  in  Nature. 
But  this  theory  was  a  very  small  part  of  the  English 
renaissance,  little  more  than  a  precept  for  the  guidance 
of  study ;  and  his  work  is  without  the  personality  and 
intensity  that  were  the  vital  spirit  of  the  movement. 

His  two  pictures  at  Millbank,  "  Edfou,  Upper  Egypt," 
and  "  The  Courtyard  of  the  Coptic  Patriarch's  House  in 
Cairo,"  are  like  archaeological  museums  of  Eastern  scenes. 
Every  detail  is  marvellously  painted,  but  there  is  no 
totality  of  effect,  no  intention  behind  the  conception. 

The  true  interest  in  the  work  arises  from  the  rendering 
of  Eastern  sunlight.  The  paint  is  laid  on  with  delicate 
brush-work  in  tints  of  pure  colour,  while  the  play  of  light 
is  carefully  regarded.  The  effect  strangely  foreshadows 
the  work  of  the  modern  plein  air  painters. 

It  was  during  these  years  of  re-awakened  thought  that 
a  young  English  painter,  trained  in  Antwerp  and  work- 
ing in  Paris,  where  he  was  surrounded  by  traditional  art, 
discovered  for  himself  the  truth  that  personality  is  neces- 
sary in  art. 

"  It  was  in  Paris,"  said  Ford  Madox  Brown,  "  I  first 
formed  my  idea  of  making  my  pictures  real,  because  no 
French  painter  did  so." 

It  is  possible  that  this  craving  for  artistic  personality 
may  have  originated  in  some  such  boyish  impulse  of 
opposition,  but  the  foundations  rested  far  deeper.  Madox 
Brown   was    born   an   independent    thinker.      He   was   not 

54 


THE   TATE    GALLERY 

so  much  a  revolutionary  as  an  earnest  reformer.  It  was 
not  his  desire  to  destroy  art,  but  rather  to  recreate  it. 
"In  his  heart  was  a  vague  but  ardent  longing,"  says 
M.  Sizeranne,  "to  see  art  in  England  taking  a  great  social 
place,  the  place  of  daily  bread,  instead  of  being  a  mere 
sweetmeat  reserved  for  the  rich  man's  table." 

How  was  this  to  be  accomplished? 

To  Ford  Madox  Brown  there  was  but  one  way.  The 
artist  must  first  of  all  be  himself,  while  his  painting  must 
be  the  direct  record  of  his  patient,  steadfast  and  detailed 
study.  Art  was  dying  from  the  continual  repetition  of 
worn-out  formulas.  For  tradition  must  be  substituted 
personality,  and  for  accepted  methods  individual  research. 

Some  such  creed  as  this  animated  the  strong  character 
of  the  young  apostle.  He  never  openly  enrolled  himself 
among  the  artistic  revivalists ;  yet,  if  truth,  self-denial, 
sincerity,  enthusiasm  —  the  work  of  an  individual  soul 
rather  than  the  parrot  repetition  of  artistic  platitudes — 
means  anything,  then  Madox  Brown  was  a  pre- Raphael ite 
of  the  pre- Raphael ites.  His  work,  records  his  friend  Mr. 
F.  G.  Stephens,  "is  the  true  archetype,  if  such  a  thing 
ever  existed,  of  the  movement  in  its  primitive  and  self- 
denying  stage." 

Madox  Brown  was  the  grandson  of  John  Brown,  a 
physician  of  Scottish  descent,  who  was  the  founder  of 
the  system  of  medicine  that  is  called  after  his  name.  Pro- 
bably it  was  from  this  source  the  painter  drew  his  in- 
dependence of  thought,  for  surely  it  was  more  than  a 
coincidence  that  he  should  accomplish  in  art  what  his 
grandsire    had    achieved    in    medicine.      His   father,   Ford 

55 


PICTURES    IN 

Brown,  was  a  commissary  in  the  British  navy,  while  his 
mother  was  a  Kentish  lady,  Miss  Caroline  Madox.  Their 
child  was  born  at  Calais  on  i6th  of  April  1821.  Almost 
from  boyhood  the  boy's  power  in  drawing  was  manifest. 
All  possible  assistance  was  given  to  train  his  talent ;  in- 
deed the  distinctive  point  of  his  artistic  education  was 
its  thoroughness.  At  the  age  of  thirteen  he  was  placed 
by  his  father  under  Professor  Gregorius  of  Bruges ;  some- 
what later  he  worked  with  Heer  Van  Hanselaer,  at  the 
Academy  of  Ghent,  v/hile  his  last  master  was  Baron 
Wappers,  a  teacher  renowned  throughout  Europe  for  his 
technical  accomplishment.  The  result  of  this  training  was 
that  the  young  painter  acquired  perfect  command  of  his 
medium.  In  this  he  was  like  the  old  masters ;  he  could 
work  with  equal  facility  in  oils,  water-colour,  pastels, 
fresco  and  encaustic,  while  he  knew  the  use  of  the  etcher's 
needle  and  the  lithographer's  stone.  His  period  of  appren- 
ticeship passed  in  ardent  and  systematised  toil ;  for  five 
years  he  worked  eight  or  nine  hours  each  day  painting 
life-sized  heads.  Not  until  this  period  had  passed  did 
he  feel  ready  to  execute  his  first  picture,  "A  Blind  Beggar 
and  his  Son." 

These  are  facts  that  cannot  be  neglected.  Madox  Brown 
knew  nothing  of  the  desultory  training  often  deemed  a 
sufficient  equipment  for  genius.  To  him  his  "ten  talents" 
carried  with  them  the  responsibility  of  increase.  Perfect 
mastery  was  necessary  for  the  acquirement  of  style ;  his 
technical  knowledge  must  be  sufficiently  complete  to  enable 
it  to  be  forgotten.  Only  in  this  way  could  he  rise  to  the 
dignity  of  historical  art.      And  to   him  this  did  not  mean 

56 


THE   TATE   GALLERY 

reproducing  by  elaborate  detail  scenes  that  were  dead,  but 
treating  all  subjects  in  the  spirit  of  great  historical  art. 

The  years  1843  and  1844  were  memorable  in  Madox 
Brown's  life.  He  took  part  in  the  cartoon  competitions  at 
Westminster,  a  national  opportunity  which  incited  the 
ambitions  of  all  English  painters.  His  cartoon  of  the 
"  Bringing  the  Body  of  Harold  to  the  Conqueror "  was 
noteworthy  for  its  profound  expression  and  complete  tech- 
nical acquirement.  An  abstract  representation  of  "Justice," 
exhibited  in  the  following  year,  was  scarcely  less  notable. 
This  note  occurs  in  Haydon's  diary  after  he  had  visited 
the  collection :  "  Passed  the  morning  at  Westminster  Hall. 
The  only  bit  of  fresco  fit  to  look  at  is  by  Ford  Brown.  It 
is  a  figure  of  'Justice,'  and  exquisite  as  far  as  that  figure 
goes." 

Other  pictures  completed  in  these  early  years  were 
"  Job  and  his  Friends,"  exhibited  at  Ghent ;  "  The  Giaour's 
Confession,"  sent  to  the  Academy  in  1841  ;  and  "  Parisina's 
Sleep,"  and  "  Manfred  on  the  Jungfrau,"  painted  in  Paris. 
In  addition  there  were  sundry  portraits  and  a  number  of 
rough  sketches — notably  some  illustrations  of  King  Lear, 
remarkable  for  their  power  of  gesture  and  intensity  of  the 
facial  expressions. 

This  work  is  tentative  in  effort,  for  Madox  Brown  had 
not  yet  found  his  individual  manner.  He  tells  us  that  the 
heads  in  "  Parisina's  Sleep  "  were  inspired  by  Rembrandt  and 
the  Spanish  pictures,  while  "  Manfred  on  the  Jungfrau  "  was 
his  first  attempt  at  an  out-of-door  effect  of  light.  The  tech- 
nical excellence  of  the  handling  is  great,  while  all  the  work 
reveals  style,  and  a  strongly  realised  dramatic  instinct. 

57  » 


PICTURES    IN 

In  1845  Madox  Brown  went  for  two  years  to  Italy. 
"  No  spirit  that  has  once  drunk  of  those  pure  founts  can 
long  remain  in  bondage  to  any  other  influence,"  is  his 
comment  on  the  effect  of  the  Italian  masters  upon  his 
work.  Again  he  writes  in  a  note  upon  his  picture  of 
"  Our  Ladye  of  Good  Children " :  "  Italian  art  made  a 
deep,  and  as  it  proved  lasting  impression  upon  me,  for  I 
never  afterwards  returned  to  the  sombre  Rembrandtesque 
style  I  had  formerly  worked  in." 

Upon  his  return  from  Italy  Madox  Brown  settled  in 
London.  A  few  of  his  early  pictures,  and  especially  the 
Westminster  cartoons,  had  aroused  the  ardent  admiration 
of  young  Gabriel  Rossetti.  The  story  of  the  impulsive 
lad  seeking  him,  and  hailing  him  as  master,  is  known 
to  every  one.  With  loving  generosity  Brown  accepted 
his  homage,  and  for  many  years  he  strove  to  help  and 
train  the  somewhat  untrainable  genius  of  the  younger 
painter. 

In  this  way  Madox  Brown  was  brought  into  friendly 
connection  with  the  future  pre- Raphael ites.  When  the 
brotherhood  was  formed  in  the  autumn  of  1848,  he  was 
earnestly  invited  to  become  a  member.  This  he  never  did. 
He  was  older  than  the  youthful  triad — probably  he  had  less 
belief  in  brotherhoods ;  while  one  of  their  early  tenets  that 
a  model,  once  selected,  must  be  absolutely  copied  without 
judgment  or  reservation,  he  knew  to  be  absurd.  He 
remained  the  friend,  and  to  a  certain  extent  the  counsellor 
of  the  brotherhood.  And  it  is  not  fanciful  to  believe  they 
drew  inspiration  from  his  work. 

It  would  be  superfluous  to  give  in  detail  the  struggles 

58 


THE    TATE   GALLERY 

and  stem  labour  which  make  up  the  story  of  Madox 
Brown's  life.  Certain  pictures  stand  forth  in  the  record 
as  milestones,  which  chronicle  his  artistic  growth. 

The  picture  of  "  Chaucer  Reading  the  Legend  of  Cus- 
tance  to  Edward  III."  may  be  taken  as  a  transition  work, 
marking  the  boundary  between  his  earlier  and  his  later 
manner.  The  figures  are  conceived  and  grouped  somewhat 
in  the  manner  of  the  earlier  historical  cartoons,  but  the 
notes  of  colour  are  brighter  and  the  shadows  less  deep. 
There  is  more  of  the  glowing  joy  of  Southern  colouring, 
though  the  scene  is  not  presented  in  sunlight. 

"This  is  the  first  picture,"  wrote  Madox  Brown,  "in 
which  I  endeavoured  to  treat  light  and  shade  absolutely 
as  it  exists  at  any  one  moment." 

Even  of  greater  import  is  "  Lear  and  Cordelia,"  a  work 
painted  in  1848  and  1849.  This  picture  marks  a  significant 
stage  in  the  expansion  of  Madox  Brown's  growth.  It  was 
the  work  in  which  artistically  he  found  himself.  "  It  is 
my  first  picture  in  my  present  or  English  manner, "  he 
writes.  And  again,  "  I  have  always  considered  this  one 
of  my  chief  works."  The  depth  of  meaning,  the  refine- 
ment, the  suggestiveness  of  the  detail,  the  intellectuality  of 
the  subject,  the  meaning  and  unconvention  of  the  attitudes, 
the  restrained  significance  of  gestures,  the  clear,  vivid  and 
distinct  colouring — all  these  essentially  national  traits  are 
revealed  in  the  picture.  It  is  this  power  which  has  made 
Madox  Brown's  influence  permanent  in  the  English  re- 
naissance. More  strongly  than  any  of  his  contemporaries, 
he  reflects  the  restrained  strength,  united  with  suggestive 
intention   that  was   the   true    spirit    of   the    pre-Raphaelite 

59 


PICTURES    IN 

revival.  In  his  work  we  see  the  distinctive  merits  of  our 
national  expression  realised  with  fine  technical  ability. 

In  1854  Madox  Brown  painted  "Christ  washing  Peter's 
Feet,"  the  picture  which  perhaps  expresses  most  clearly  the 
completeness  of  his  power.  The  work  is  supremely  strong; 
it  is  great  in  its  intention,  and  the  conception  of  the  scene 
speaks  to  the  beholder  with  deep  suggestion.  Look  at  the 
gleaming  colour  in  the  red  copper  bowl,  and  the  rich  full 
tones  of  the  colour  scheme.  Note  the  vigour  and  the 
strangeness  of  Peter's  crouching  attitude,  and  the  combined 
reserve  and  dignity  of  the  figure  of  the  Christ.  Mark  the 
expression  of  the  Apostles — St.  John  upon  the  right  with 
his  chin  stretched  forward  upon  his  hands,  Judas  stooping 
to  clasp  his  sandal,  the  disciples  gathered  around  the  table, 
each  figure  in  a  posture  of  strange  intensity.  Again,  I 
would  say,  notice  these  things  if  you  would  realise  how 
new  and  how  great  was  Madox  Brown's  art.  The  picture 
has  much  of  the  dignity  of  the  old  masters ;  it  is  one  of 
the  supreme  works  of  our  country.  Half  a  century  after 
it  was  painted,  it  was  bought  by  a  body  of  subscribers  and 
presented  to  the  nation. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  in  the  painter's  diary,  that 
twelve  days  before  sending  the  picture  to  the  Academy, 
"he  gave  it  up  in  despair."  It  was  Millais  who  persuaded 
him  to  continue  the  work,  and  in  ten  days  the  heads  of 
Christ,  and  Peter,  and  John  were  repainted. 

Almost  every  figure  in  the  picture  is  a  portrait.  Four 
members  of  the  pre-Raphaelite  band  are  represented.  Hol- 
man  Hunt  and  Rossetti  sit  together  near  the  centre  of  the 
table,  the  Christ  and  St.  John  are  portraits  of  F.  G.  Stephens 

60 


oi 

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<  e 


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I 


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OF  THE 


I    UNIVERSITY 

OF  ^ 


THE   TATE    GALLERY 

and  Walter  Howell  Deverell,  two  members  of  the  brother- 
hood; while  among  the  group  of  apostles  upon  the  left 
of  the  picture  are  Holman  Hunt's  father,  Charles  Bagot 
Cayley,  and  Mr.  William  Michael  Rossetti. 

Many  pictures  were  painted  after  this  time.  "  The  Last 
of  England"  was  inspired  by  the  emigration  movement  of 
1852.  Here  at  length  we  view  a  scene  of  contemporary  life 
depicted  with  a  dignity  of  thought,  a  clear  beauty  of  colour, 
and  a  skill  of  craftsmanship,  which  raises  it  to  the  level  of 
great  art.  "  Absolutely  without  regard  to  the  art  of  any 
period  or  country  I  have  tried  to  render  the  scene  as  it 
would  appear,"  is  the  simple  statement  of  Madox  Brown. 
And  by  this  personal  interpretation  he  has  created  a  master 
work,  great  and  dignified ;  a  scene  of  intimate  history,  per- 
fectly true  and  perfectly  natural. 

"Work,"  the  drama  of  nineteenth  century  life,  was 
begun  at  Hampstead  in  1859.  ^t  is  painted  with  the  ut- 
most faithfulness  of  detail,  and  the  scene  is  pregnant  with 
suggestion.  Less  great  than  "  The  Last  of  England "  in 
the  power  of  its  pictorial  design,  it  is  noteworthy  from  its 
concentration  and  literary  thought.  "  Romeo  and  Juliet," 
"The  Death  of  Sir  Tristram,"  "Cordelia's  Portion,"  and 
"  King  Rend's  Honeymoon,"  are  pictures  of  a  different 
character.  They  are  perfect  examples  of  Romance  illus- 
tration. "  Cordelia's  Portion  "  is  magnificent  in  its  restrained 
yet  passionate  intensity.  Every  attitude  and  every  gesture 
speaks.  The  painter's  final  work  was  executing  the  twelve 
mural  panels  for  the  Town  Hall  of  Manchester,  illustrating 
the  history  of  the  city. 

These  were  the  closing  act  in  the  drama  of  a  great  life, 

61 


THE   TATE    GALLERY 

for  Ford  Madox  Brown  was  a  great  man  as  well  as  a 
great  painter.  Pre-eminently  his  art  was  the  outcome  of 
his  character.  How  willingly  we  would  linger  over  the 
pages  of  his  diary,  wherein  we  read  a  record  of  supreme 
power  yoked  with  fine  restraint.  The  man  who  laboured 
incessantly,  often  beginning  his  work  with  the  first  flush 
of  dawn,  writes  with  perfect  simplicity  :  "  I  must  strive  and 
struggle  against  indolence."  With  what  sorrow  we  note 
the  entry  made  in  August  1854 :  "  Oh  the  hell  of  poverty." 
But  it  was  not  often  that  bitterness  seared  Madox  Brown's 
strong  spirit. 

Let  one  extract,  taken  from  his  diary,  speak  for  the 
greatness  of  the  man.  He  is  writing  of  his  work,  prior  to 
painting  the  picture  of  "  Chaucer  reading  his  Poems  in  the 
Court  of  Edward  HI.":  "Whether  the  picture  will  ever 
deserve  the  pains  I  am  now  taking  remains  to  be  seen ; 
very  likely  it  may  only  add  to  the  many  kicks  I  have 
already  received  from  fortune.  If  so,  I  am  quite  able  to 
bear  it,  and  despise  her.  Of  one  thing  she  cannot  rob  me 
— the  pleasure  I  have  already  extracted — distilled  I  may 
say — from  the  very  work  itself.  Warned  by  bitter  experi- 
ence, I  have  learnt  not  to  trust  only  to  hope  for  my 
reward,  nor  consider  my  toil  as  a  sacrifice,  but  to  value  the 
present,  the  pleasure  I  have  received,  and  daily  yet  receive, 
from  the  working  out  of  a  subject  after  my  own  heart." 


62 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE   PRE-RAPHAELITES:     GABRIEL   CHARLES 
DANTE    ROSSETTI   (1828-1882) 


CHAPTER    VI 

THE   PRE-RAPHAEUTES:    GABRIEL   CHARLES 
DANTE   ROSSETTI   (1828-1882) 


HE  story  of  the  founding  of  the  pre- 
Raphaelite  brotherhood  has  been  told  and 
re-told  with  many  variations.  The  meet- 
ing of  three  painters,  little  more  than  lads, 
the  finding  of  a  book  of  engravings  from 
the  frescoes  in  the  Campo  Santo  of  Pisa, 
such  was  the  simple  event,  but  to  these  insignificant  inci- 
dents must  be  added  a  threefold  power  of  enthusiasm,  firing 
a  trio  of  artistic  Don  Quixotes,  each  one  of  whom  was 
conscious  of  the  manifold  forces  that  were  vibrating  in  the 
artistic  horizon. 

As  every  one  knows,  these  three  painters  were  Gabriel 
Dante  Rossetti,  John  Everett  Millais,  and  William  Holman 
Hunt.  It  would  be  difficult  to  find  three  temperaments 
more  varied.  Perhaps  it  may  not  be  wholly  fanciful  to 
say  that  Rossetti  was  the  soul,  Millais  the  body,  and  Holman 
Hunt  the  conscience  of  the  movement ;  the  first  had  inspira- 
tion, the  second  technical  mastery,  while  the  third  had 
patience.  They  were,  in  very  truth,  a  trinity  of  contrasts. 
Had  these  young  reactionists  lived  in  Paris  they  would 
have  contented  themselves  with   frequenting  the  same  cafd, 

65 


PICTURES   IN 

says  M.  de  la  Sizeranne.  But  they  were  English,  and 
therefore  they  formed  a  brotherhood.  Rules  were  formu- 
lated— some  good,  some  foolish ;  proselytes  were  gathered. 
The  Germ,  the  chronicle  of  their  faith,  was  issued,  a  name 
was  adopted,  and  the  mystic  letters  P.R.B.,  chosen  half  in 
fun,  became  first  a  flag  of  challenge,  and  afterwards  the 
symbol  of  the  English  Renaissance. 

It  is  not  easy  to  appraise  the  exact  influence  this 
movement  exercised  in  the  art  life  of  its  founders.  To 
some  this  foregathering  of  a  few  ardent  spirits  has  seemed 
an  inspiration  of  supreme  moment.  Others  have  regarded 
it  as  a  mere  incident,  causing  some  half-dozen  pictures  to 
be  painted  in  a  certain  manner,  after  which  the  entire  impulse 
was  forgotten  by  at  least  two  of  the  triad.  In  the  main,  this 
divergence  of  outlook  depends  upon  what  the  pre-Raphaelite 
ideal  is  held  to  signify.  If  it  is  regarded  as  an  iron-bound 
code,  a  creed  insisting  on  detail,  pure  colour,  and  out-of- 
door  results — in  fact,  a  kind  of  artistic  mould  into  which 
each  painter  must  be  indiscriminately  thrust — then  certainly 
its  influence  must  be  narrowed  to  a  few  years  of  prentice 
discipline,  when  the  brothers  worked  together,  mutually  re- 
acting one  upon  another. 

But  pre-Raphaelism  was  more  than  this.  Mr.  F.  G. 
Stephens,  himself  one  of  the  earliest  converts,  describes 
their  federation  as  "a  League  of  Sincerity."  The  evangel 
of  the  pre-Raphaelites  was  the  oft-echoed  cry,  "  Express 
yourself,  in  truth."  Their  rules  and  early  years  of  detailed 
practice  were  artistic  leading  reins,  only  enforced  to  guide 
them  to  individual  realisation.  It  was  not  the  work  of  the 
pre-Raphaelists  to  follow  rules  so  much  as  to  forget  them. 

66 


THE    TATE    GALLERY 

The  fact  that  after  a  few  years  they  ceased  to  paint  pre- 
Raphaelite  pictures  does  not  prove  the  failure  of  the  move- 
ment. What  they  retained  was  personal  intensity  of  expression. 
This  is  the  force  which  constitutes  their  greatness.  In  this 
way  they  maintained  the  spirit  of  their  youthful  protest ;  in 
this  way  they  overthrew  tradition  and  effected  a  revolution 
in  British  art,  which  was  even  greater  than  they  knew. 

The  details  of  Rossetti's  parentage  and  early  life  are 
so  well  known  I  shall  not  here  re-state  them.  The  facts 
of  his  temperament  can  be  briefly  summarised  ;  he  was  a 
mediaeval  Italian,  living  in  London  in  the  nineteenth 
century.  And  the  expression  of  this  Italianism  was  the 
essence  of  his  work.  Rossetti  never  tried  to  recreate  the 
past ;  he  lived  in  it  A  pre- Raphael ite  by  election,  he  was 
also  a  pre-Raphaelite  by  temperament.  Perhaps  no  painter 
has  ever  expressed  himself  more  unconsciously  and 
more  unreservedly.  Romance,  passion,  wonder,  reverence, 
patriotism  were  the  inheritance  of  his  blood.  His  child- 
hood was  passed  in  a  dream  world  in  which  the  arts 
loomed  large.  From  the  very  first  his  artistic  expression 
was  natural  and  spontaneous ;  what  the  poet-artist  and 
the  artist-poet  g^ve  to  the  world  was  the  vibration  of  his 
own  spirit. 

And  for  this  reason  all  training  was  supremely  diffi- 
cult to  Rossetti.  It  may  sound  paradoxical  but  it  is 
nevertheless  true,  that  he  was  too  natural  an  artist  ever 
to  gain  complete  mastery  of  his  art.  His  work  was  too 
intuitive  to  be  technically  correct. 

Thus  it  causes  no  surprise  to  hear  that  Rossetti  was 
a  wayward   and   difficult  pupil.     He   began  his  systematic 

67 


PICTURES   IN 

art  training  in  1843,  at  Mr.  Carey's  Art  Academy  in 
Bloomsbury.  But  neither  there  nor  at  the  Academy 
School,  to  which  he  was  admitted  in  1846,  does  he  appear 
to  have  learnt  anything  appreciable.  Nor  were  matters 
much  different  when  he  became  the  pupil  of  Madox 
Brown.  His  master  set  him  to  paint  studies  of  medicine 
bottles  and  pickle  jars,  but  instead  of  working  at  these 
technical  exercises  the  Italian  dreamed  and  planned  beau- 
tiful designs,  and  meantime  covered  the  studio  with  litter 
and  paint. 

"  But  Gabriel  has  genius,"  was  the  verdict  of  Madox 
Brown. 

Rossetti  was  always  profoundly  sensitive  to  the  opinion 
of  his  friends ;  indeed,  he  was  an  instrument  for  expressing 
manifold  impressions  rather  than  a  conscious  agent.  Not 
that  his  art  was  in  any  sense  imitative ;  but  his  tempera- 
ment was  sensitively  reflective,  and  the  influence  of  his 
environment  was  unconsciously  reproduced  in  his  work. 
At  the  Academy  Schools  he  had  gained  the  friendship  of 
Millais  and  Holman  Hunt,  and  in  1848  he  left  Madox 
Brown,  being  unable  longer  to  bear  the  bottles  which 
"  tormented  his  soul  beyond  all  powers  of  endurance." 
With  Hunt  he  took  a  studio  at  No.  7  Cleveland  Street, 
Fitzroy  Square,  "a  dismal  wilderness  of  dirt  and  gloom." 

It  was  here  that  the  two  pre-Raphaelites  painted  their 
first  pictures.  Keats'  famous  poem,  the  story  of  Isabella 
and  the  Pot  of  Basil,  was  the  subject  chosen  for  their 
challenge  work.  It  is  almost  unnecessary  to  say  that 
Rossetti's  ardour  was  the  inspiration  of  the  trio,  while  it 
almost  equally   follows   that   his    accomplishment  was    the 

68 


THE    TATE    GALLERY 

most  erratic.  Upon  the  theme  he  had  himself  chosen  he 
completed  nothing.  And  Holman  Hunt  speaks  of  his 
"unchecked  impatience"  causing  many  interruptions  in 
their  work. 

It  was  typical  of  Rossetti's  character  that  he  was  in- 
directly, rather  than  directly,  influenced  by  his  association 
with  his  pre-Raphaelite  brothers.  Like  a  mirror  he  caught 
the  spirit  of  Hunt's  deep  religious  sentiment.  He  was 
spurred  by  the  sight  of  his  patient  labour,  while  at  the 
same  time  he  gained  much  technical  aid  from  the  advice 
of  Millais,  and  from  the  example  of  his  brilliant  facility. 
The  influence  of  Madox  Brown  mingled  with  these  new 
forces,  while  every  motive  was  woven  into  a  mystic  vision 
of  mediaeval  fervour  by  his  Italian  sensitiveness. 

It  was  in  this  spirit  that  Rossetti  began  to  work  upon 
his  "Girlhood  of  Mary,  Virgin,"  early  in  1849.  The  picture 
was  built  on  a  design  made  several  months  before,  and  a 
sonnet  was  written  to  illustrate  the  theme. 

"  As  it  were 
An  angel-watered  lily,  that  near  God 
Grows  and  is  quiet." 

This  supremely  beautiful  conception  was  the  prelude  to 
the  Ecce  Ancilla  Domini.  The  second  scene  must  have 
already  been  visioned  in  the  poet-painter's  mind  before  he 
had  completed  the  first  picture,  for  the  sonnet  continues — 

**  Till  one  dawn  at  hone 
She  woke  in  her  white  bed,  and  had  no  fear 
At  all,  yet  wept  till  sunshine,  and  felt  awed, 
Because  the  fulness  of  the  time  was  come." 

In  these  two  pictures  Rossetti  accomplished  a  supremely 

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PICTURES    IN 

difficult  thing.  He  gave  new  life  to  an  old  theme.  The 
great  Christian  drama  was  revivified  by  translating  it  into 
the  universal  drama  of  a  woman's  life.  The  pictures  are 
not  religious,  they  are  human. 

The  Catholic  ideal  of  Mary,  Mother  of  God,  had  faded. 
It  was  no  longer  possible  to  present  her  wearing  gor- 
geous raiments  and  soaring  in  the  heavens  amid  bands  of 
attendant  cherubs,  or  seated  enthroned  in  stately  worship 
surrounded  by  the  saints.  Instead,  Rossetti  gives  us  a 
scene  of  perfect  naturalness,  a  young  girl,  hovering  upon 
the  border-line  of  womanhood,  as  yet  passionless,  just 
awakened  from  sleep,  crouches  back  upon  her  bed,  half- 
fearing,  half-expecting,  "  Because  the  fulness  of  the  time 
was  come." 

If  you  wish  to  understand  the  depth,  the  truth,  the 
pathetic  suggestion  of  the  scene,  compare  this  picture 
with  "The  Annunciation,"  painted  by  Arthur  Hacker,  or 
indeed  with  almost  any  modern  presentment  of  the  scene. 
The  contrast  is  too  obvious  to  require  insistence,  the 
triviality  and  weakness  of  one  realisation  reveal  the 
beauty  and  mystic  significance  of  the  other. 

Perhaps  Rossetti  is  the  only  painter  who  unites 
symbolism  with  reality  without  offence.  In  his  later  work 
these  mystical  objects  tend  to  over-abound.  But  here 
the  symbols  of  the  lily,  the  briar,  the  palm-leaf,  the  dove, 
are  introduced  with  a  simplicity  which  enables  us  to 
accept  their  presence. 

This  first  outgrowth  of  the  pre-Raphaelite  impulse 
is  strongly  individual  and  very  beautiful.  It  is  a 
symphony  of    simple   lines,   with    its    pure    colour-scheme 

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of  white,  heightened  by  the  full  red  of  the  lily  embroidery. 
The  work  may  not  be  technically  perfect,  but  it  has 
at  the  least  one  quality  that  belongs  to  all  great  art,  "a 
lovely  strangeness." 

Rossetti  never  consciously  tried  to  make  a  beautiful 
picture;  what  he  strove  for  was  to  portray  an  idea  with 
dramatic  intensity.  Beauty  was  superadded  in  the  telling. 
This  tendency,  which  was  always  strong,  increased  as 
he  gained  fuller  technical  mastery.  How  true  this  is  will 
be  seen  in  "The  Beata  Beatrix,"  which  was  not  painted 
until  1862,  and  belongs  to  the  final  and  most  perfect  stage 
of  his  artistic  development. 

The  picture  is  a  symbol  and  an  idea,  full  of  the 
quietness  of  great  suggestion.  Beatrice,  the  beloved  of 
Dante,  sits  in  the  balcony  of  her  father's  house  in 
Florence.  We  see  her  as  she  was  imaged  in  the  poet's 
innermost  mind.  She  dreams  the  divine  vision  of  the 
New  Life.  Each  detail  in  the  picture  is  a  token,  each 
colour  is  chosen  for  some  deep  significance.  The  light 
falls  tenderly  from  behind,  the  rays  shine  lustrous  through 
the  heavy  strands  of  her  hair,  until  they  radiate  into 
an  aureole  of  flame.  In  the  distance  are  the  shadowed 
forms  of  Dante  and  the  red-robed  Angel  of  Love.  The 
soft  cadence  of  the  colours — purple,  green,  and  a  dull 
full  red  —  mingle  in  a  subdued  melody  of  tones.  We 
g3izc  and  gaze  upon  the  scene  and  remain  perfectly 
satisfied. 

Many  changes  marked  Rossetti's  progress  between 
his  early  "  Annunciation  "  and  the  painting  of  this  picture. 
"  If  we  would  describe  his  growth  in  one  short  sentence, 

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PICTURES    IN 

we    may    say    that    during    these    years    he    passed    from 
religious  mysticism  to  dramatic  symbolism. 

It  is  not  possible  to  do  more  than  briefly  enumerate  the 
events  which  wrought  this  change.     Shortly  after  the  paint- 
ing of  "The  Annunciation,"  the  storm  of  indignation  against 
the  pre-Raphaelites  gathered  and  fell.     The  significance  of 
the  letters  P.R.B.  was  fathomed,  England  rose  in  protest, 
and  the  defence  of  Raphael  and  tradition   became   a   kind 
of  holy  Crusade.     This  event  intimately  affected   Rossetti. 
His  picture  was  left  unsold,  and  half  in  fun,  half  in  bitter- 
ness, he  dubbed  it  "the  blessed  white  eyesore."     Once  in 
disgust  he  determined  to  accept  a  post  as  a  telegraph  clerk 
at  one  of  the  great  railways.     Success  and  sympathy  were 
.  essential  to  Rossetti.     He  became  restless,  maybe  he  wearied 
of  the  old  restraints,  but  in  185 1  he  left  the  studio  at  New- 
man Street  and  thus  passed  from  the  constraining  religious 
atmosphere,  which   resulted   from    his   companionship  with 
Holman    Hunt.     In   the    same  year   Mr.    Ruskin's   famous 
letters    were    sent   to    the    Times,    and    the    pre- Raphael ite 
battle  was  won.     But  the  trio  of  brothers  were  now  seek- 
ing   for    individual    development    in    diverse    paths.       The 
Germ  was  already  dead ;  in  1853  Holman  Hunt  sailed  for 
Palestine  in  pursuit  of  truth,  while  Millais  was  welcomed 
into  the    safe   fold    of  the  Academy    and    became  A.R.A. 
"So  now  the  whole  Round  Table  is  dissolved,"  was  Ros- 
setti's  comment  upon  these  events. 

Meanwhile  new  influences  had  played  upon  the  poet's 
spirit,  and  he  had  already  painted  several  pictures  in  a 
new  mood  of  strong  dramatic  passion.  A  visit  to  Paris 
and  the  Low  Countries,  the  awakening  of  Robert  Browning's 

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poetry,  the  strong  spell  of  Miss  Siddall's  beauty,  the  friend- 
ship and  generosity  of  Mr.  Ruskin,  such  were  the  strongest 
factors  which  now  moulded  Rossetti's  mode  of  expression. 

In  the  next  six  years  he  painted  a  series  of  historic 
pictures  all  strongly  dramatic  and  symbolical.  "  The 
Laboratory,"  a  first  work  in  water-colour,  was  the  herald 
of  these  pictures  of  concentrated  passion.  The  scene  is 
founded  upon  Browning's  poem  of  the  same  name.  In 
it  we  see  a  jealous  woman  seeking  from  the  apothecary 
"the  drop"  with  which  to  poison  her  rival. 

"  Is  it  done  ?    Take  my  mask  off !     Nay,  be  not  morose, 
It  kills  her,  and  this  prevents  seeing  it  close : 
The  delicate  droplet,  my  whole  fortune's  fee — 
If  it  hurts  her ;  beside,  can  it  ever  hurt  me  ? " 

Perfectly  the  scene  is  realised.  The  design,  the  strong 
brilliant  colours,  the  gestures  of  the  man  and  of  the  woman, 
every  detail  introduced  combines  to  accentuate  the  fury 
of  this  voluptuous  and  jealous  woman. 

Other  pictures  followed  this  work.  The  pen-drawing 
of  "  Hesterna  Rosa,"  the  first  design  of  "  How  They  Met 
Themselves,"  the  brilliant  "  Lucrezia  Borgia,"  "Dante  draw- 
ing an  Angel  in  Memory  of  Beatrice,"  "  Beatrice  at  the 
Wedding  Feast  denying  her  salutation  to  Dante,"  the  water- 
colour  of  "  Dante's  Dream,"  and  the  exquisite  study  of 
"  Paolo  and  Francesca,"  are  a  few  examples  of  these  con- 
ceptions of  intensely  realised  human  emotion.  Much  might 
be  written  of  these  pictures.  Again  and  again  in  the  work 
we  trace  the  influence  of  Madox  Brown.  The  stern  sim- 
plicity of  the  early  sacred  studies  has  passed,  but  these 
later    designs    still    retain    the  pre- Raphael ite   intensity  of 

73  K 


PICTURES    IN 

expression.  Every  attitude  speaks ;  every  colour  chosen, 
every  detail  introduced,  assists  the  strong  dramatic 
effect. 

A  growing  delight  in  detailed  symbolism  may  be 
detected  in  many  of  these  designs.  This  tendency  was 
greatly  increased  about  1857.  At  that  time  Rossetti  was 
brought  into  touch  with  the  Oxford  aesthetic  movement 
by  his  friendship  with  William  Morris,  Burne-Jones,  and 
Swinburne.  He  became  the  arch-apostle  of  these  young 
enthusiasts,  and  almost  at  once  his  art  re-echoed  their 
beliefs.  The  pictures  of  this  period,  such  as  "  The  Blue 
Closet,"  "The  Wedding  of  St.  George,"  and  the  many 
illustrations  to  the  Arthurian  romantic  cycle,  are  decorative 
rather  than  pictorial  in  their  effect.  The  designs  are  over- 
crowded, and  in  spite  of  the  beauty  of  the  realisation,  our 
eye  wearies  of  unneeded  figures  and  multiplicity  of  detail, 
while  our  literary  intelligence  is  oppressed  with  the  mean- 
ing of  the  numberless  symbols. 

But  Rossetti  did  not  remain  in  these  by-paths  of  mediae- 
valism.  His  versatile  genius  found  many  varied  channels 
of  expression.  The  impressive  drawing  of  "  Found,"  exe- 
cuted in  1853,  retains  a  strong  pre-Raphaelite  accent.  It 
is  full  of  memories  of  Madox  Brown.  Again,  the  scene 
of  "  Dr.  Johnson  at  the  Mitre "  is  an  inimitable  study  of 
humour,  rendered  with  perfect  directness ;  yet  the  scene 
was  conceived  in  i860,  the  time  when  his  spirit  was 
steeped  in  decorative  convention. 

In  i860  Rossetti  married  Miss  Siddall,  and  about  this 
time  he  may  be  said  to  have  reached  his  final  goal  of 
full  development.     He  had  now  overmastered  the  greatest 

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THE   TATE   GALLERY 

of  his  technical  deficiencies,  while  his  colour,  always  good, 
was  in  these  last  years  supremely  great. 

Almost  all  the  pictures  of  this  period  are  creative 
impersonations  of  beautiful  women.  In  the  majority  the 
literary  intention  is  still  symbolical,  as  in  the  case  of 
"The  Beata  Beatrix,"  but  the  symbols  are  not  super- 
added details ;  they  are  part  of  the  design,  and  aid  its 
beauty. 

A  few  of  the  studies  are  conceptions  of  pure  beauty, 
with  no  mystical  meaning.  Such  a  work  is  the  sumptuous 
portrait  of  Mrs.  Morris,  with  its  rich  glow  of  Venetian 
tones.  A  second  example  is  the  red  chalk  drawing  of 
"  Rosa  Triplex,"  a  threefold  rendering  of  one  exquisite 
form.  In  this  drawing  Rossetti  was  a  simple  devotee  of 
Beauty.  Five  times  he  repeated  the  theme,  enamoured 
with  the  charm  of  the  design.  The  drawing  of  the  Tate 
Gallery  was  made  in  1867,  from  Miss  Alice  Wilding. 

Throughout  his  life  Rossetti's  powers  were  stimulated 
by  the  women  he  painted.  It  has  often  been  said  that 
his  personations  are  unreal.  This  is  not  so ;  they  were 
the  living  reflections  of  the  women  he  knew  most  truly. 
His  sister  Christina  was  a  perfect  Virgin,  and  her  quiet 
and  distinctive  charm  influenced  his  first  years  of  religious 
symbolism.  Miss  Siddall,  for  ten  years  his  comrade  and 
pupil,  and  for  two  brief  years  his  wife,  was  the  supreme 
inspiration  of  his  work  until  her  death  in  1862.  We  see 
her  first  in  the  picture  of  "  Dante  on  the  Anniversary  of 
Beatrice's  Death,"  while  the  "Beata  Beatrix"  is  a  last 
profoundly  touching  memory,  painted  immediately  after 
the  tragedy  of  her  loss.     Miss   Ruth   Herbert,   Miss  Alice 

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THE   TATE    GALLERY 

Wilding,  and  Mrs.  William  Morris  were  the  models  for  his 
later  pictures.  The  rare  beauty  of  Mrs.  Morris  quickened 
Rossetti's  fullest  powers.  Hers  was  a  poet's  ideal  face, 
alluring,  illusive,  and  wholly  felicitous.  Again  and  again 
Rossetti  painted  her.  In  "  Mariana,"  in  "  Proserpine,"  in 
"  Venus  Astarte,"  in  "  La  Donna  della  Finestra,"  in  "  Pan- 
dora," in  "The  Day  Dream,"  he  was  spurred  by  the 
beauty  of  her  suggestiveness. 

In  the  space  of  these  few  pages  it  has  not  been  prac- 
ticable to  deal  adequately  with  a  genius  so  complex,  so 
varied,  and  so  rare  as  that  which  animated  Rossetti.  No 
detailed  chronicle  of  his  life  has  been  possible,  the  music 
of  his  verses  has  been  passed  over  in  silence,  while  much 
of  his  work  has  perforce  remained  unnoticed.  And  yet  in 
Rossetti's  case  all  omission  is  specially  difficult,  for  each 
event  left  its  indelible  imprint  upon  his  life,  to  be  after- 
wards repeated  in  his  work. 

"  What  of  the  end  ?     These  beat  their  wings  at  will, 
The  ill-born  things,  the  good  things  turned  to  ill, — 
Powers  of  the  impassioned  hours  prohibited. 
Ay,  clench  the  casket  now !     Whither  they  go 
Thou  may'st  not  dare  to  think:  nor  canst  thou  know 
If  hope  still  pent  there  be  alive  or  dead." 

— Rossetti's  Sonnet  "Pandora." 


76 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE   PRE-RAPHAELITES 
SIR  JOHN   EVERETT   MILLAIS   (1829-1896) 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE   PRE-RAPHAELITES:    SIR  JOHN   EVERETT 
MILLAIS  ( 1 829-1 896) 


F  Gabriel  Rossetti  was  the  soul  of  the  pre- 
Raphaelite  movement,  Sir  John  Millais 
was  its  animating  life.  His  clear  common- 
sense,  his  directness  of  vision,  the  strong 
virility  of  the  man  and  of  his  art,  ac- 
complished what  neither  of  his  confreres 
could  have  effected  alone.  While  Rossetti  roamed  in  the 
by-paths  of  mediaeval  fancy,  while  Holman  Hunt  toiled  up 
the  hills  of  undeviating  effort,  Millais  walked  swiftly  along 
a  straight  pleasant  road,  fascinating  the  cultured  with  his 
manner  of  painting,  and  at  the  same  time  pleasing  the 
populace  with  his  subjects. 

AV»i,  vidi,  vicil  The  sentence  rises  unbidden  to  our 
memory  when  we  think  of  Sir  John  Millais.  His  career 
in  art  was  a  triumphant  march  of  great  accomplishment. 

His  talent  and  his  happy  self-confidence  were  both  of 
early  growth.  As  a  child  of  six  his  power  in  drawing 
was  already  remarkable,  and  a  story  is  told  of  a  wager 
lost  by  a  French  officer,  who  was  unable  to  credit  his  pre- 
mature talent.  Before  he  was  nine  the  brilliant  child  was 
taken   by  his   parents    to    London.       His    drawings   were 

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PICTURES    IN 

shown   to   Sir   Martin   Shee,   the   President    of  the   Royal 
Academy. 

"You  had  better  make  your  son  a  chimney-sweep  than 
an  artist,"  was  the  advice  of  the  old  President  before  the 
portfolio  was  opened. 

He  looked  at  the  sketches. 

"Madam,  Nature  has  made  your  son  an  artist;  it  is 
your  duty  to  bring  him  up  to  art." 

This  successful  prelude  indicated  the  movement  that 
would  follow.  Through  his  probationary  course  with  Mr. 
Sass,  and  during  his  years  of  training  in  the  schools  of 
the  Academy,  the  triumph  continued.  Every  prize,  every 
medal  was  gained  by  the  bright  boy-student,  whose  per- 
sonality was  as  remarkable  as  his  talent.  He  was  always 
eager  to  aid  his  friends ;  indeed,  his  spirit  was  on  fire  with 
enthusiasm  to  seize  whatever  he  saw  was  good.  Rossetti 
once  said  that  "His  face  shone  like  an  angel " ;  while 
Holman  Hunt  writes  in  his  reminiscences  of  their  student 
days,  "  Millais  and  I  used  to  talk  about  painting.  His 
power  dazzled  me." 

At  seventeen  his  first  picture,  "  Pizarro  seizing  the  Inca 
of  Peru,"  was  hung  at  the  Academy,  and  this  ambitious 
work  was  appraised  by  a  French  critic  "  as  one  of  the 
two  best  historical  pictures  of  the  year."  "  The  Tribe  of 
Benjamin  seizing  the  Daughters  of  Shiloh,"  "  Elgiva  seized 
by  Order  of  Archbishop  Odo,"  and  a  large  and  powerful 
scriptural  design  of  "  The  Widow  Offering  her  Mite,"  which 
was  sent  to  the  Westminster  Hall  Competition  of  1847, 
were  the  product  of  his  eighteenth  year. 

As  the  titles  of  these  compositions  indicate,  Millais  at 

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first  worked  in  the  prescribed  path  of  traditional  art. 
There  is  nothing  in  these  scenes  of  many  figures,  except 
the  vigour  of  their  execution,  to  separate  them  from  the 
usual  academic  output  of  Victorian  historic  present- 
ment. 

Perhaps  nothing  illustrates  so  forcibly  the  extreme 
robustness  which  at  all  times  characterised  Millais,  both 
as  a  man  and  as  a  painter,  as  the  remarkable  swiftness  with 
which  he  was  able  to  revolutionise  his  manner  of  expres- 
sion. If  the  canvas  of  *'  Pizarro  Seizing  the  Inca  of  Peru" 
were  taken  from  its  resting-place  at  South  Kensington 
Museum  and  placed  in  the  Liverpool  Art  Gallery,  in  juxta- 
position with  his  first  pre-Raphaelite  conception  of  "  Lorenzo 
and  Isabella,"  the  primal  impression  left  upon  the  mind 
would  be  supreme  wonderment  that  both  pictures  had  been 
painted  by  the  same  youth  within  a  term  of  three  years. 
In  nothing  are  they  united  except  in  their  amazing 
strength. 

It  can  never  be  truly  said  that  there  was  anything- 
tentative  in  the  work  of  Millais.  Even  his  prentice  pictures 
are  perfectly  assured  in  execution ;  there  is  no  sign  of 
hesitation  in  the  manner  in  which  they  are  painted. 

Millais  was  a  born  fighter,  and  probably  it  was  this 
instinct  which  caused  him  to  join  with  Rossetti  and  Holman 
Hunt  in  the  pre-Raphaelite  revival.  It  will  be  remembered 
that  Rossetti  never  accomplished  his  picture  upon  the 
subject  of  "  Isabella,"  the  theme  chosen  by  the  trio  for 
their  first  essay  in  vindication  of  the  Primitives.  This,  as 
we  have  seen,  was  typical  of  the  poet.  It  was  equally 
characteristic  of  Millais,    that   while    Rossetti    talked   and 

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PICTURES    IN 

Holman  Hunt  diligently  studied  details,  he  painted  his 
"  Lorenzo  and  Isabella." 

Holman  Hunt  has  called  this  work  "the  most  wonder- 
ful painting  that  any  youth  still  under  twenty  years  of 
age  ever  did  in  the  world,"  and  probably  this  estimate  is 
little  exaggerated. 

It  would  be  futile  to  dogmatise  with  regard  to  the 
exact  inspiration  that  Millais  gained  from  the  pre- Raphael ite 
federation.  That  his  power  was  stimulated,  nay,  rather 
deepened,  by  the  subtle  and  poetic  beauty  of  Rossetti  and 
the  strong  Christian  sincerity  of  Holman  Hunt  is  abundantly 
evident.  Think  of  the  picture  of  "  Christ  in  the  House 
of  his  Parents,"  which  was  painted  in  1850,  the  second  year 
of  the  pre- Raphael  ite  protest.  In  this  work  every  attitude 
is  considered,  every  detail  is  a  symbol  introduced  to  help 
the  story.  The  spirit  of  Rossetti  seems  to  hover  in  the 
conception,  while  the  skilful  execution  is  from  the  hand 
of  Millais. 

This  imaginative  symbolism  appears  to  some  extent  in 
many  of  the  painter's  early  pictures.  We  see  it  in  "The 
Bridesmaid,"  in  "  Ferdinand  Lured  by  Ariel,"  in  "  Mariana 
in  the  Moated  Grange,"  in  "  Ophelia,"  and  in  other  works. 
It  reappears  in  "  The  Vale  of  Rest,"  which  was  painted 
after  the  first  strictness  of  the  pre-Raphaelite  motives  had 
been  loosened.  While  finally  it  may  be  traced,  in  a  new 
form  of  sentimentalised  degeneracy,  in  "  St.  Stephen," 
"A  Disciple,"  and  "The  Forerunner,"  the  last  pictures  that 
he  painted. 

The  wave  of  enthusiasm  for  Raphael  and  tradition 
that    flooded    England   in    1850   stemmed    for  a   time   the 

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stream  of  the  young  pre-Raphaelite's  popularity.  But  the 
cloud  did  not  remain,  and  before  1853  the  sun  of  his 
prosperity  was  again  shining. 

Two  pictures  compassed  this  change,  "The  Huguenot" 
of  1852,  and  the  still  more  popular  work,  "The  Order  of 
Release,"  painted  in  1855.  These  pictures  are  typical  of 
the  large  group  of  everyday  scenes  of  sentiment  which  have 
endeared  Millais  to  the  populace  of  England. 

One  further  point  must  be  noted  about  these  genre 
studies ;  they  are  pre-Raphaelite  in  the  detailed  reality  of 
their  rendering,  but  they  are  without  the  pre-Raphaelite 
sentiment.  Look  at  "The  Order  of  Release"  and  you 
will  see  that  intensity  of  realisation— the  essential  spirit 
of  pre-Raphaelism,  is  entirely  absent.  The  attitudes,  the 
gestures  and  the  expressions  are  commonplace ;  there  is 
no  depth  of  meaning  either  in  the  colour  or  in  the  de- 
tails of  the  picture. 

At  all  times  Millais  chose  his  subjects  solely  for  the 
sake  of  painting  them.  It  is  this  characteristic  which  causes 
M.  de  la  Sizeranne  to  say  that  "  he  is  the  least  English 
of  the  artists  of  his  country."  And  it  is  surely  in  this 
fact  we  find  the  explanation  of  the  great  variety  in  his 
pictures.  Millais  had  no  desire  to  teach ;  there  was  no 
special  meaning  he  wished  his  pictures  to  express.  He 
was  not  overburdened  with  imagination  or  ideals  of 
beauty,  and  as  soon  as  the  pre-Raphaelite  battle  was 
gained  he  had  no  creed  to  justify.  I  do  not  even  think 
he  was  much  burdened  with  the  desire  to  please  his 
public.  He  merely  wished  to  paint.  To  him  art  was  so 
natural,   so   much  a  matter  of  course,   that   it  was  but  a 

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PICTURES    IN 

step    to    descend    to    the    commonplace.      This    fact    was 
Millais'  strength,  but  it  was  also  his  weakness. 

The  "Ophelia"  was  painted  in  the  same  year  as  "The 
Order  of  Release."  The  canvases  hang  almost  side  by 
side  in  the  Tate  Gallery,  and  again  we  note  the  great 
difference  in  the  two  pictures. 

"There  is  a  willow  grows  aslant  a  brook. 
That  shows  his  hoar  leaves  in  the  glassy  stream ; 
There  with  fantastic  garlands  did  she  come 
Of  crow-flowers,  nettles,  daisies,  and  long  purples  .  .  . 
There,  on  the  pendent  boughs  her  coronet  weeds 
Clambering  to  hang,  an  envious  sliver  broke; 
When  down  her  weedy  trophies  and  herself 
Fell  in  the  weeping  brook.     Her  clothes  spread  wide; 
And,  mermaid-like,  a  while  they  bore  her  up ; 
Which  time  she  chanted  snatches  of  old  tunes, 
As  one  incapable  of  her  own  distress. 
Or  like  a  creature  native  and  indued 
Unto  that  element :  but  long  it  could  not  be 
Till  that  her  garments  heavy  with  their  drink, 
Pull'd  the  poor  wretch  from  her  melodious  lay 
To  muddy  death." 

What  can  we  say,  except  that  this  wondrous  imagery  is 
exquisitely  rendered?  The  painting  is  a  rare  union  of 
reality  and  imagination.  Each  petal,  each  leaf,  each  tiny 
rush  and  bough  of  willow  is  painted  with  loving  careful- 
ness. And  all  the  tints  are  gladdened  by  the  clear  strong 
sunlight. 

"  Ophelia  "  is  a  portrait  of  Miss  Siddall ;  and  her  excep- 
tional beauty  is  perfectly  suggested.  The  dull  flame  of 
her  copper  hair,  the  bright  clear  complexion,  the  strange 
winning  sweetness  are  faithfully  pictured.  "  Wonderfully 
like   her,"  was   the  verdict   of  the   friends  who   knew   her. 

84 


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UNIVERSITY 


THE    TATE    GALLERY 

The  scene  is  an  actual  transcript  from  the  Ewell,  near 
Kingston,  where  Millais  and  Holman  Hunt  went  during 
the  summer  of  1851,  to  paint  the  landscapes  to  their 
pictures. 

"It  is  not  given  to  every  man — not,  indeed,  to  any — to 
succeed  whenever  and  however  he  tries.  The  best  painter 
that  ever  lived  never  entirely  succeeded  more  than  four  or 
five  times ;  that  is  to  say,  no  artist  ever  painted  more  than 
four  or  five  masterpieces."  These  are  the  painter's  own 
words,  written  in  his  Thoughts  on  Our  Art  of  To-day.  No 
one  was  more  conscious  than  Millais  of  the  disproportion  in 
his  achievements.  In  the  same  essay  he  stated,  "  I  confess 
I  should  not  grieve  if  half  my  works  were  to  go  to  the 
bottom  of  the  Atlantic — if  I  might  choose  the  half  to  go." 
Mr.  Spielmann,  in  his  excellent  appreciation  of  the  painter, 
Millais  and  His  tVorks,  relates  the  incident  which  first 
called  forth  this  remark.  It  was  in  1886,  the  year  in 
which  an  exhibition  of  his  pictures  was  held  at  the 
Grosvenor  Gallery.  Millais  went  to  the  house  of  Lord 
Leighton  straight  from  gazing  upon  his  own  handiwork. 
" '  Quick  I '  he  exclaimed,  in  an  exhausted  tone,  '  give  me 
some  champagne — I'm  quite  ill.'  Then,  after  a  draught, 
he  added  :  '  I've  been  seeing  all  my  old  work  I — all  my 
past  misdeeds  have  been  rising  up  against  me  I  Oh,  the 
vulgarity  of  some  of  them,  my  dear  fellow  I  The  vul- 
garity I     But  some  fine  things,  mind  you/' " 

Among  these  fine  things  "Ophelia"  and  "The  Vale  of 
Rest"  may  unhesitatingly  be  placed.  They  are  among  the 
master  works  which  all  would  accord  to  the  painter's 
name. 

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PICTURES   IN 

"The  Vale  of  Rest"  was  not  completed  until  1859,  ^ 
time  when  the  "  Portrait  of  Mr.  Gladstone,"  "  Autumn 
Leaves,"  and  "  The  Blind  Girl "  had  already  been  added 
to  his  pre-Raphaelite  triumphs. 

Millais  was  now  passing  through  a  transitional  period. 
The  pre-Raphaelite  battle  had  become  a  victory ;  there 
was  no  longer  need  for  a  militant  expression  of  his 
principles.  He  lessened  his  insistence  upon  detail,  his 
manipulation  became  freer,  and  his  realism  less  literal. 
And  yet  this  picture,  which  marks  his  passage  from  the 
controlling  reins  that  had  hitherto  directed  his  brush,  is 
the  most  truly  pre-Raphaelite  of  his  works.  In  it  we 
see  the  very  spirit  of  the  English  renaissance. 

It  is  not  a  picture  that  can  be  described  in  words. 
Two  nuns — the  critics  called  them  ugly — are  in  a  convent 
graveyard,  one  is  labouring  heavily,  her  muscles  strain 
as  she  lifts  her  spade,  weighted  with  heavy  earth,  from 
the  grave  which  she  is  digging.  An  elder  sister  sits  upon 
a  slab  of  stone  that  has  been  removed  from  the  grave 
head.  The  time  is  evening;  the  sky  is  fused  with  the 
tints  of  sunset ;  but  amid  the  glory  is  a  coffin-shaped 
cloud,  the  omen  of  death. 

This  bald  description  can  convey  no  idea  of  the 
symphony  of  the  colours,  the  agreement  of  the  design, 
the  fine  quality  of  the  paint ;  still  less  can  it  give  the 
beauty  of  the  thought.  The  scene  is  one  of  suggestive 
symbolism.  From  the  contrast  of  the  perfect  quiet  of 
that  sunlit  garden,  side  by  side  with  the  presage  of  death, 
we  realise  something  of  the  inevitableness  of  life. 

This   was   the  painter's   favourite   picture.     The  subject 

86 


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THE    TATE    GALLERY 

was  first  imaged  in  his  memory  from  a  chance  view 
of  a  nun  digging  a  grave  in  a  French  convent,  but  the 
actual  scene  was  painted  from  an  old  churchyard  at 
Kinnoull  in  Perthshire. 

We  have  no  need  to  follow  step  by  step  the  artistic 
path  which  Millais  now  pursued.  His  pictures  in  the 
Tate  Gallery  will  furnish  us  with  the  record.  Much 
has  been  written  upon  the  apostasy  of  the  painter,  who 
travelled  in  twenty-five  years  from  "  The  Vale  of  Rest " 
to  "  Bubbles."  Many  have  found  an  explanation  of  this 
change  in  the  fact  that  the  letters  P.R.B.  were  exchanged 
first  to  A.R.A.  in  1853,  and  ten  years  later  to  R.A.  It 
has  been  said  that  the  poetry  and  sentiment  of  his 
early  work  was  a  reflected  inspiration,  drawn  from  Rossetti 
and  Holman  Hunt  TMat  Millais  was  influenced  by 
the  pre- Raphael ite  association  is  undoubted,  but  this 
explanation  cannot  be  entirely  accepted.  "The  Eve  of 
St.  Agnes"  and  "The  Enemy  Sowing  Tares,"  both  painted 
after  1862,  and  the  much  later  "Victory,  O  Lord,"  of 
1 87 1,  are  works  of  suggestion  and  imagination.  Certainly 
in  his  later  years  Millais  did  paint  many  popular  pictures. 
But  this  was  not  a  change ;  it  was  simply  an  increase  of 
the  tendency  which  caused  him  to  select  a  subject  for 
its  paintable  possibilities  alone.  Any  common  daily 
incident  suggested  a  picture.  His  own  children  were 
the  models  for  the  majority  of  the  child-scenes  that  are 
known  in  every  home  of  England. 

The  essential  change  between  the  painter's  earlier  and 
later  work  is  a  technical  one.  Compare  the  manner  of 
painting  in  "The   North-West  Passage"  of  1874  with  the 

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PICTURES    IN 

"Ophelia"  or  even  with  "The  Vale  of  Rest,"  and  this  differ- 
ence will  at  once  be  manifest.  All  trace  of  the  old  pre- 
Raphaelite  brush-work  has  disappeared,  no  longer  are  the 
details  accentuated ;  instead,  every  incident  is  subordinated 
to  the  general  effect. 

"The  North- West  Passage"  is  one  of  the  masterpieces 
of  these  late  years.  The  rendering  is  magnificent.  All 
the  accessories  are  faithfully  painted,  yet  the  picture  is  not 
a  record,  but  a  perfect  impression  of  the  scene.  We  may 
not  care  for  the  subject,  but  this  is  forgotten,  as  we  delight 
in  the  actual  quality  of  the  paint  and  in  the  rare  beauty 
of  the  colour. 

Millais  always  had  the  power  of  telling  a  story  dra- 
matically. It  is  true  that  his  drama  is  not  profound,  nor  is 
it  very  original,  but  the  historic  rendering  lends  an  obvious 
interest  to  many  of  his  pictures.  We  see  this  in  "The 
North-West  Passage";  we  see  it  again  in  "The  Boyhood 
of  Raleigh."  In  this  latter  picture  the  interest  of  the  scene 
is  at  once  centralised  in  the  intent  faces  of  the  two  boys, 
as  they  sit  crouched  upon  the  quay  listening  to  the  recital 
of  a  Genoese  sailor.  The  boys  are  portraits  of  his  sons, 
and  Millais  has  interpreted  their  wrapt  eagerness  with  fine 
power. 

This  instinct  for  dramatic  situations  was  entirely  natural 
to  Millais.  Unfortunately  his  drama  often  descends  to 
melodrama.  We  gain  the  first  hint  of  this  romantic 
over-emphasis  in  "The  Proscribed  Royalist,"  an  early 
picture  painted  in  1853.  It  would  be  easy  to  multiply  in- 
stances from  many  of  the  painter's  romantic  scenes.  It  is 
this   theatrical   unreality  which   impairs   the  conception   in 

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THE    TATE    GALLERY 

"  Mercy  St.  Bartholomew's  Day."  We  see  the  same  weak- 
ness in  the  later  work  of  "  Speak,  Speak,"  and  the  same 
want  of  restrained  simplicity  may  be  detected  in  the  finer 
picture  of  "The  Knight  Errant." 

Millais  was  one  of  the  few  painters  who  never  acquired 
a  distinctive  manner,  and  the  most  remarkable  characteristic 
of  any  collection  of  his  pictures  is  their  variety.     The  in- 
tention of  his  art  was  never  sufficiently  complex  to  become 
specialised.     In  the  Tate  Gallery  we  see  him  as  a  realist 
and  as  an  impressionist,  as  a  symbolist   and   as   a   story- 
teller, as  a  painter  of  exquisite  dreams  and  as  a  painter 
of  trivial   facts.     In   one   picture  he  delights   the   poet,  in 
another  he  speaks  to  the  philistine.     Nor  do  these  pictures 
in   the  National  Collection   exhaust   the   manifold   capacity 
of  his  expression.     He  was  a  great  portraitist,  he  was  also 
a  landscape  painter,  and   above   this   he  worked  with   con- 
summate ability  in  black  and  white.     His  portrait  studies 
are   perhaps   his   finest  work ;    they   reveal    his   marvellous 
dexterity  as  a  workman.     Think  of  such  pictures  as  "  Fresh 
Eggs,"  a  simple   presentment  of  his   daughter  dressed   in 
a  Pompadour  costume,  or  of  the  well-known  "Yeoman  of 
the  Guard,"  or  again  of  the  brilliant  "Souvenir  of  Velas- 
•  quez,"  his  diploma  picture  of   1868.     In   these  works  we 
unreservedly  admire  the  quality  of  the   paint,  the   strong 
vigour  of  the  brush-work,  and  the  fresh  charm  of  the  colour. 
Millais  had   fine  power   in   depicting   natural  scenes.     His 
landscapes  are  transcripts,  cut  like  living  blocks  from  Nature. 
We  find  again  the  poetry  of  his  early  work  in  such  scenes 
as  "Chill  October"  and   "An   Old   Garden."    And   lastly, 
his  book  illustrations   in    black    and   white    must    not    be 

89  M 


THE   TATE    GALLERY 

overlooked    in    estimating    the    greatness   of   his    achieve- 
ment. 

Had  Millais  accomplished  less  he  would  probably  never 
have  failed.  We  may  wish  that  certain  pictures  had  re- 
mained unpainted ;  we  may  regret  that  his  rare  technical 
genius  in  some  cases  appears  to  have  been  wasted.  But 
we  must  remember  that,  even  were  it  possible  to  have 
changed  these  things,  we  should  probably  have  lost  more 
than  we  gained.  No  one  can  give  to  the  world  except 
from  the  outgrowth  of  his  own  character.  And  in  his 
art  Millais  was  essentially  himself,  a  painter  rather  than  an 
artist,  a  brilliant  manipulator,  but  not  a  poet. 


90 


CHAPTER  VIII 
THE   PRE-RAPHAELITE   DISCIPLES 


CHAPTER  VIII 


THE   PRE-RAPHAEUTE   DISCIPLES 


OLMAN  HUNT,  the  third  member  of 
the  pre-Raphaelite  brotherhood,  is  unre- 
presented in  the  Tate  Gallery.  This 
omission  cannot  be  too  deeply  deplored. 
Rossetti  once  said  of  his  work  "  that  the 
solemn  human  soul  seemed  to  vibrate 
through  it  like  a  bell."  And  this  judgment  is  true. 
Holman  Hunt  was  something  more  than  the  conscience  of 
pre-Raphaelism ;  he  was  the  reanimated  spirit  of  mediaeval 
Christianity  working  in  the  nineteenth  century.  The  aim 
of  his  art  was  to  re-clothe  the  life  of  Christ  in  actual 
verity.  He  sought  to  reproduce  the  eternal  significance  of 
the  Christian  drama  by  scientific  fidelity,  and  even  exag- 
geration of  detail ;  giving  beauty  and  deeper  meaning  to  his 
work  by  a  wealth  of  imaginative  symbolism.  Whether 
such  an  aim  could  ever  be  accomplished  by  such  means  we 
need  not  ask  ;  nor  need  we  pause  to  question  whether  this 
multitude  of  symb)ol  and  elaborate  detail  does  not  weary, 
instead  of  charm,  the  artistic  reason,  and  thus  defeat  its 
own  purpose.  Let  this  be  as  it  may,  the  work  of  Holman 
Hunt  typifies  a  radical  and  distinctive  phase  in  the  develop- 
ment of  British  art ;  and  for  this  reason  alone,  even  if  for 

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no  other,  our  National  Collection  must  remain  incomplete 
while  his  work  is  absent. 

To  some  small  extent  this  historical  void  is  filled  by 
the  work  of  Thomas  Seddon  (1821-1857),  the  disciple  of 
Holman  Hunt,  he  echoes  in  landscape  the  spirit  of  his 
master.  "Jerusalem,  and  the  Valley  of  Jehoshaphat"  is 
an  effort  to  reproduce  with  absolute  exactitude  the  truth  of 
the  scene  represented.  It  is,  says  Mr.  Ruskin,  "  a  truly 
historic  landscape,  uniting  perfect  artistical  skill  with  topo- 
graphical accuracy.  The  primal  object  is  to  place  the 
spectator,  as  far  as  art  can  do,  in  the  scene  represented, 
and  to  give  him  the  perfect  sensation  of  its  reality,  wholly 
unmodified  by  the  artist's  execution." 

Seddon  travelled  with  Holman  Hunt  to  the  East  in 
1853.  Five  months  of  incessant  toil  were  devoted  to  the 
execution  of  the  picture ;  and  during  the  couple  of  years 
he  was  away,  only  two  works  were  completed,  the  "  Jeru- 
salem," and  a  scene  of  the  "  Pyramids  of  Ghizeh."  In  a 
letter  sent  from  Jerusalem  the  painter  writes :  "  After 
visiting  every  part  of  the  city  and  surrounding  country  to 
determine  what  I  would  do,  I  have  encamped  upon  the 
hill  to  the  south,  looking  up  the  valley  of  Jehoshaphat ;  I 
have  sketched  the  view  which  I  see  from  the  opening  of 
my  tent.  I  am  painting  from  one  hundred  yards  higher 
up,  where  I  see  more  of  the  valley,  with  the  Tombs  of  the 
Kings  and  Gethsemane.  I  get  up  before  five,  breakfast, 
and  begin  soon  after  six.  I  come  in  at  twelve  and  dine,  and 
sleep  for  an  hour;  and  then,  about  two,  paint  till  sunset." 

The  picture  breathes  the  spirit  of  desolation — that  strange 
beauty,  half  alluring,  half  repelling,  of  an   Eastern   scene, 

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THE    TATE    GALLERY 

where  all  landscape  seems  reduced  to  one  plane,  and  all 
colour  to  one  tone,  until  every  incident  of  the  scene  blends, 
buildings,  rocks,  vegetation,  landscape,  all  united  in  weird 
fascination.  The  picture  is  a  literal  transcript  of  the  scene, 
and  yet  it  is  far  more  than  a  topographical  map  of  Jeru- 
salem. We  realise  something  of  the  deep  spirit  of  loving 
piety  in  which  it  was  painted ;  we  feel  instinctively  that 
the  artist's  mood  was  in  complete  unison  with  his  subject. 
Thus,  though  the  scene  is  unchanged  by  pictorial  em- 
bellishment, it  is  infused  with  the  charm  of  inspiration. 
In  the  true  colour  of  its  blue-purple  shadows,  in  its 
realisation  of  light,  in  its  truth  of  both  sentiment  and  de- 
tail, the  picture  is  beautiful.  We  do  not  weary  of  gazing 
at  it,  for  it  has  the  uncommon  charm  of  negative  perfection. 

The  disciple  of  Rossetti,  and  to  a  certain  extent  his 
successor,  was  Sir  Edward  Burne-Jones.  "  His  art  has 
g^own  up  from  the  seed  sown  by  Madox  Brown,  on  the 
stem  cultivated  by  Rossetti,"  writes  M.  de  la  Sizeranne. 
It  was  Rossetti's  woodcut  design  of  "  Elfen  Mere  "  that  first 
inflamed  the  latent  enthusiasm  that  dwelt  in  the  spirit 
of  Burne-Jones.  At  the  time  he  was  an  Oxford  under- 
graduate, destined  for  the  Church.  With  the  devotion  of 
a  pilgrim,  worshipping  at  the  shrine  of  his  chosen  saint, 
he  sought  Rossetti,  and  asked  his  advice.  The  result  was 
that  he  forsook  Oxford  and  the  Church,  and  became  the 
pupil  of  the  pre-Raphaelite  symbolist. 

In  this  brief  space  it  is  not  possible  to  follow  the 
effect  of  this  discipleship.  Burne-Jones  gained  much  of 
Rossetti's  Italian  spirit,  but  to  this  mediaevalism  was 
added    a    yearning    weariness,    born    of    modern    thought. 

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PICTURES   IN 

The  difference  between  the  attitude  of  the  two  artists 
was  that  one  adopted  the  manner  of  expression  that  was 
natural  to  the  other.  The  pupil  re-expressed  the  artistic 
predisposition  of  the  master,  with  an  added  coldness,  a 
fulness  of  pure  thought,  that  was  his  own ;  the  result  of 
his  work  being  the  outcome  of  study  rather  than  of 
spontaneous  fancy. 

And  herein  rests  the  secret  of  decorative  purity  that 
animates  the  art  Burne-Jones  has  created.  In  his  work 
we  see  the  intensity  of  attitude  and  gesture,  the  depths  of 
purpose,  the  full  suggestive  symbolism,  the  poetic  in- 
tention, the  strange  loveliness  of  pre-Raphaelism,  translated 
into  a  new  language  of  restrained  and  sombre  pensiveness. 

"King  Cophetua  and  the  Beggar-Maid "  is  a  perfect 
design  of  pure  decorative  beauty.  The  old  legend  is  in- 
fused with  a  new  spirit,  wherein  Italian  forms  mingle 
strangely  with  modern  sadness. 

"For  thou,  quoth  he,  shall  be  my  wife, 
And  honoured  for  my  queen." 

There  is  nothing  of  the  exultant  lover  in  the  conception 
of  the  king ;  while  the  beggar-maid  might  be  a  virgin  who 
had  stepped  from  a  canvas  of  the  Primitives.  The  low- 
keyed  colour-scheme  harmonises  with  the  idea,  the  strange 
height  of  the  figures  with  their  strained  unrestful  attitudes, 
even  the  laboured  handling  and  the  curious  quality  of 
paint  seem  to  emphasise  the  intention  of  the  work. 
Every  detail  of  the  scene  appears  inevitable — we  wish  to 
alter  nothing ;  the  picture  brings  us  a  hovering  sense  of 
wistful  sadness  akin  to  the  painter's  mood. 

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THE    TATE    GALLERY 

R.  B.  Martineau  (1826- 1869),  Henry  Wallis  (born  1830), 
and  J.  M.  Inchbold  (1830-1888),  worked  directly  under  the 
pre-Raphaelite   influence.      Each   painter   has   a  picture   in 
the    National    Collection.      Martineau    was    the    pupil    of 
Holman  Hunt.     "  He  never  became  a  facile  executant,  but 
from  the  very  first  he  produced  admirable  pictures,"  was  the 
verdict  of  his  master.     His  small  study,   "The  Last  Day 
in  the  Old  Home,"  is  an  example  of  the  patient  and  con- 
scientious sincerity  of  his  art.      Every  detail   is   rendered 
with  almost  painful   accuracy.      It  is  said  that  Martineau 
devoted  ten  years  to  painting  this  picture.      "The  Death 
of  Chatterton,"  by  Henry  Wallis,  is  a  dramatic  rendering 
of  a  tragic  theme  that  has  gained  much  popularity.     The 
work   is   pre-Raphaelite   in   manner    rather  than    in   spirit. 
The  exact  reverse  may  be  said  about  the  moorland  land- 
scape of  J.  W.  Inchbold.     It  is  a  view  on  Dartmoor,  care- 
fully painted,  and  made  beautiful  with  harmonious  colour. 
Ruskin,    in    his   Academy   Notes,    praises    "the    exquisite 
finish  of  the  lichenous  rock  painting," 

This  brief  summary  does  not  exhaust  the  painters  who 
were  conscious  of  the  reviving  impulse  of  the  English 
renaissance.  The  sincerity,  the  simplicity,  the  depth  of 
intention,  and  the  personality,  realised  in  the  work  of 
Madox  Brown  and  the  triad  of  pre-Raphaelite  brothers 
yielded  abundant  fruitage.  It  was  these  qualities  which 
united  in  remoulding  British  art.  This  influence  cannot 
be  measured  nor  arbitrarily  appraised.  The  pre-Raphaelite 
inspiration  was  translated  by  many  workers  into  new  forms 
of  personal  expression.  Yet  recollections  of  the  old  dis- 
tinctive style  still  linger  in  British  art,  A  few  painters 
I  97  » 


THE   TATE   GALLERY 

to-day  continue  to  work  in  the  pre- Raphael ite  manner, 
reproducing  not  only  the  spirit  of  pre-Raphaelism,  but  its 
actual  form.  "  My  Lady's  Garden,"  by  J.  Young  Hunter, 
and  "A  Golden  Thread"  and  "The  Story  of  Ruth,"  the 
decorative  panels  of  Mr.  Strudwick  and  Mr.  Rooke,  are 
modern  pre-Raphaelesque  survivals. 


98 


CHAPTER  IX 

IMAGINATIVE  ART:    GEORGE   FREDERICK 
WATTS   (1817-1904) 


CHAPTER  IX 

IMAGINATIVE   ART:    GEORGE   FREDERICK   WATTS 

(1 8 17-1904) 


RT,  losing  its  great  mission,  being  no 
longer  employed  in  the  service  of  the 
State  or  of  religion,  is  in  danger  of 
losing  its  character  as  a  great  intellec- 
tual utterance." 

"  I  paint  ideas,  not  objects.     I  paint 
first  of  all  because  I   have  something  to  say." 

"  My  intention  has  not  been  so  much  to  paint  pictures 
that  will  charm  the  eye  as  to  suggest  great  thoughts  that 
will  appeal  to  the  imagination  and  the  heart,  and  kindle 
all  that  is  best  and  noblest  in  humanity." 

"  I  even  think  that  in  the  future,  and  in  stronger  hands 
than  mine,  Art  may  yet  speak,  as  great  as  [xjetry  itself, 
with  the  solemn  and  majestic  ring  in  which  the  Hebrew 
prophets  spoke  to  the  Jews  of  old,  demanding  noble 
aspirations." 

I  have  singled  out  these  four  utterances  of  the  painter, 
who  was  also  a  prophet,  because  they  illuminate  his  inmost 
character.  No  words  of  mine  could  mirror  so  clearly  the 
spirit  of  the  man  we  have  known  as  G.  F.  Watts.  The 
sound   of  heroic   resolve   ring^   in   the  cries,   eighty-seven 

lOI 


PICTURES    IN 

years  consecrated  to  one  purpose,  that  "  Art  may  yet  speak, 
may  yet  demand  noble  aspirations." 

We  must  not  forget  that  in  his  essential  temperament 
Watts  belonged  to  the  generation  that  has  passed — passed 
as  completely  as  if  hundreds  and  not  units  represented  the 
years  that  separate  it  from  the  present.  The  Victorian 
age  was  self-conscious  and  self-important.  Many  of  its 
greatest  and  most  typical  figures  show  a  curious  inter- 
blending  of  sacrifice  and  high  resolve,  touched  with  self- 
consciousness.  It  is  a  trait  very  difficult  to  describe,  but 
any  one  who  has  read  Mr.  Morley's  Life  of  Gladstone 
will  understand  what  it  was — a  union  of  self-importance 
with  high  purpose  and  profound  humility.  Perhaps  we 
may  best  define  it  as  a  deep  sense  of  a  mission,  which 
made  a  man  self-conscious  through  his  work  rather  than 
through  himself.  A  character  sublimely  grand,  and  at  the 
same  time  deficient  in  humour. 

It  was  something  of  this  spirit,  mellowed  by  an  added 
artistic  sense  and  a  deep  comprehension  of  the  power  of 
beauty,  that  fired  the  imagination  of  Watts.  The  young 
painter  roamed  in  the  Greek  corridors  of  the  British  Museum, 
and  gazed  upon  the  Elgin  Marbles,  the  while  he  dreamed  of  a 
great  renaissance  in  the  art  of  the  world.  It  was  no  personal 
arrogance  that  made  this  boy  determine  he  would  devote 
his  life  to  painting  great  art.  He  was  the  instrument ;  it 
was  his  message  that  was  great. 

It  is  not  surprising  to  learn  that  Watts  gained  nothing 
from  the  training  of  the  Academy.  He  worked  for  one 
month  in  the  Schools,  and  then  he  returned  to  the  Elgin 
Marbles  to  learn  how  "  to  produce  great  works." 

I02 


THE    TATE    GALLERY 

A  portrait  is  still  in  existence,  painted  by  Watts  him- 
self, in  which  we  see  him  as  he  was  in  those  student  days. 
The  face  is  long,  oval  and  sensitive,  haloed  with  a  thick 
mass  of  falling  dark  hair ;  the  features  are  finely  chiselled, 
the  mouth  large  and  fully  curved,  the  eyes  clear,  intent,  and 
searching.  The  low  collar  and  loose  tie  leave  the  throat 
quite  free ;  the  coat  is  rough,  and  it  is  carelessly  worn.  It 
is  the  likeness  of  a  poet ;  it  bears  a  strange,  yet  striking 
similarity  to  the  face  of  Shelley.  The  expression  is  that 
of  an  ardent  disciple,  and  the  head  would  serve  for  the 
model  of  a  young  David. 

The  Westminster  Cartoon  Competition  of  1843  first 
gave  the  painter  the  opportunity  for  which  he  yearned. 
This  event,  of  weighty  import  to  all  British  artists,  to  Watts 
was  spmething  more.  It  was  a  public  call  to  a  great  duty. 
Ford  Madox  Brown,  Alfred  Stevens,  and  Millais  were 
among  the  competitors.  Each  painter  was  intimately 
conscious  of  the  dignity  of  his  work,  each  was  supremely 
earnest,  each  was  destined  to  work  for  the  emancipation  of 
British  Art.  Yet  the  spirit  of  the  prophet-painter  was 
apart  from  theirs.  They  worked  for  art ;  he  that  art  might 
teach.  "  It  might  be  done,  and  England  should  do  it." 
This  motto,  chosen  by  Millais  to  illustrate  his  picture, 
"  The  North-West  Passage,"  reflects  the  spirit  in  which 
Watts  painted  his  cartoon  of  "  Caractacus  led  captive 
through  the  streets  of  Rome." 

Art  was  to  be  saved.  Once  more  it  was  to  glorify 
humanity ;  nay,  it  was  to  do  nx)re  than  it  had  yet  accom- 
plished, it  was  to  be  the  evangel  of  a  new  age  of  righteous- 
ness.    This  was  the  first   tremendous   thought   that   fired 

103 


PICTURES    IN 

the  devotion  dwelling  in  the  mind  of  Watts.  The  second 
thought  was  hardly  less  important — England  was  to  achieve 
this  work.  Patriotism  meant  to  Watts  something  pro- 
foundly great.  His  art  and  England  were  the  two  mistresses 
to  whom  he  dedicated  his  life.  For  it  was  in  truth  a 
dedication.  No  painter,  in  the  simpler  ages  that  are  past, 
partaking  of  the  Eucharist  before  he  essayed  to  paint, 
was  ever  more  conscious  of  the  greatness  and  solemnity 
of  his  work. 

There  is  something  almost  staggering  in  the  thought 
of  what  this  young  painter  felt  himself  called  upon  to  ac- 
complish. No  thought  of  gaining  personal  greatness  parti- 
cipated in  his  vision,  and  because  of  this  abnegation,  an 
inspiration  arose  which,  in  some  measure  at  any  rate,  caused 
the  impossible  to  be  achieved. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  follow  step  by  step  the  course 
by  which  Watts  prepared  himself  for  his  labour.  The 
"Caractacus"  cartoon  of  1843  obtained  a  prize.  Four  years 
were  spent  in  Italy  in  study  and  in  continued  meditation. 
In  1847  the  young  painter  returned  to  England  in  order 
to  take  part  in  a  new  Westminster  competition.  Once 
again  he  gained  a  prize,  this  time  for  a  cartoon  of 
"  Alfred  inciting  the  Saxons  to  resist  the  Danes." 

The  next  twelve  years  were  dedicated  to  national 
decorations  in  heroic  fresco.  It  was  a  period  of  dis- 
appointment that  resulted,  to  a  great  extent,  in  failure. 
Fresco  painting  and  the  English  climate  are  not  in  unison. 
And  the  fresco  of  "  St.  George  and  the  Dragon,"  painted 
in  the  upper  Waiting  Hall  of  Westminster  Palace,  at  the 

cost  of  five  years'  labour,  quickly  faded. 

104 


THE    TATE    GALLERY 

An  event  of  this  period  sheds  such  illumination  upon 
the  character  of  the  prophet-painter  that  it  may  not  be  lightly 
passed  over.  About  this  time  Watts  applied  to  the 
Directors  of  the  London  and  North-Western  Railway  for 
permission  to  decorate  their  station  with  a  series  of  com- 
positions which  would  interpret  the  history  of  the  Cosmos. 
Now,  unless  we  realise  that  to  Watts  there  was  no  in- 
congruity in  the  idea  of  uniting  the  Cosmos  with  Euston 
Station,  we  cannot  understand  the  combined  simplicity 
and  greatness  of  his  spirit.  Mr.  Chesterton  speaks  of  this 
incident  as  "a  splendid  and  truly  religious  imagination." 
And  Mr.  Chesterton  is  right.  Yet,  probably,  Watts  was 
the  only  painter  of  the  age  to  whom  such  a  thought  would 
have  been  at  once  beautiful  and  perfectly  possible. 

This  free  gift  was  refused,  and  the  painter's  hope  of 
decorating  the  everyday  public  buildings  of  England  for 
her  people  had  to  be  renounced.  Instead  he  painted  his 
great  fresco  of  "Justice"  for  the  Benchers  at  Lincoln's  Inn. 
But  the  prophet's  message  was  for  the  people,  and  a  new 
scheme  of  artistic  redemption  was  formulated.  With  sub- 
lime enthusiasm  Watts  determined  to  paint  a  mighty 
series  of  pictures,  to  be  given  to  the  nation  as  the  fruit- 
age of  his  life.  He  would  tell  the  story  of  the  Cosmos, 
he  would  teach  great  facts  of  Love  and  Life  and  Death ; 
while,  in  addition,  he  would  paint  a  group  of  portraits  of 
the  renowned  and  worthy  men  of  his  time. 

We  learn  that  even  as  a  boy  he  dreamed  of  a  mighty 
temple  or  palace  of  light,  with  corridors  and  stately  halls 
all  filled  with  paintings,  that  should  teach  men  the  wonders 
and  mysteries  of  truth. 

105  o 


PICTURES    IN 

It  was  in  this  spirit  that  Watts  began  to  paint  the  series 
of  pictures,  which  were  to  interpret  his  philosophy  of  life. 

The  prelude  to  this  work  was  the  picture  of  "Life's 
Illusions,"  which  has  recently  been  added  to  the  Tate 
Gallery.  The  composition  was  painted  as  early  as  1850, 
at  the  time  when  the  Lincoln's  Inn  fresco  was  being  exe- 
cuted. From  Watts  himself  we  learn  that  the  intention  is 
allegorical.  The  design  typifies  the  march  of  human  life. 
"  Fair  visions  of  beauty,  the  abstract  embodiments  of 
divers  forms  of  Hope  and  Ambition,  hover  high  in  the 
air  above  the  gulf  which  stands  as  the  goal  of  all  men's 
lives.  At  their  feet  lie  the  shattered  symbols  of  human 
greatness  and  power,  and  upon  the  narrow  space  of  earth 
that  overhangs  the  deep  abyss  are  figured  the  brighter 
forms  of  illusions  that  endure  through  every  changing 
fashion  of  the  world." 

Now  in  this  work  the  painting  is  supremely  beautiful, 
but  the  symbolism  is  too  obvious.  We  know  that  all  men 
are  pursuing  bubbles,  that  all  are  riding  into  unknown 
space.  These  are  the  commonplaces  of  knowledge.  Thus, 
in  spite  of  the  full  beauty  of  the  flowing  lines,  the  glory 
of  tone,  and  the  perfect  rendering  of  the  nude  figure,  the 
picture  leaves  us  intellectually  unmoved. 

To-day  it  is  only  possible  for  the  artist  to  use  symbolism 
in  two  ways.  The  symbols  may  be  introduced  as  part  of 
the  design,  in  the  manner  Rossetti  or  Burne-Jones  handled 
them.  In  this  case  they  are  purely  pictorial,  and  their 
actual  meaning  matters  little.  But  when  the  symbolism 
becomes  didactic  and  is  used  to  enforce  a  meaning,  then 
the  suggested  idea  must  convey  to  the  mind  a  fresh  truth, 

106 


THE    TATE    GALLERY 

or  rather  a  truth  revivified  so  that  we  comprehend  its  signifi- 
cance anew.  If  this  is  not  done  we  would  prefer  the  picture 
without  its  symbolical  lesson. 

But  it  is  exactly  this  that  Watts  has  accomplished  in 
the  greatest  of  his  subsequent  work.  His  pictures  tell  of 
Death  and  Life  and  Love,  the  truths  which  remain  eternal 
through  every  age.  And  these  old  facts  spring  forth  from 
his  hand  re-clothed  with  new  ideas.  We  realise,  as  we 
gaze  upon  his  work,  that  mythological  painting  can  still 
be  alive.  Watts  painted  a  Death  benignant  and  strong, 
welcomed  instead  of  hated,  the  friend  of  little  children. 
His  Love  is  triumphant  and  protecting,  the  guide,  the 
sustainer,  the  recompense  of  Life.  For  it  is  Life  that  is 
weak  and  tremulous,  unable  to  walk  except  for  the  firm 
hand  of  Love.  And  yet  Love  is  less  beneficent  than  Death. 
These  are  the  primal  truths  that  Watts  has  taught  us. 

His  wondrous  picture  of  "Death  Crowning  Innocence" 
might  readily  be  mistaken  for  a  modem  rendering  of  the 
Madonna  with  her  Child.  The  perfect  tenderness  of  the 
winged  figure  breathes  a  divine  motherhood.  Nor  is  Death 
compassionate  only  to  the  innocent.  In  "The  Court  of 
Death "  the  universal  Queen  has  cast  aside  her  shroud, 
she  sits  enthroned,  a  woman  benign  and  restful.  On  either 
side  she  is  guarded  by  the  powers  of  Silence  and  Mystery, 
while  her  throne  is  reared  on  the  ruins  of  Earthly  Pride. 
A  warrior,  in  the  strength  of  manhood ;  a  woman,  beautiful 
but  weary,  seek  her  eternal  rest;  a  young  child  gambols 
fearlessly  in  the  long  folds  of  her  shroud ;  a  new-born 
babe  is  nestled  in  her  arms.     For  Life  cometh  from  Death 

the  Consoler. 

107 


PICTURES    IN 

Again,  and  yet  again,  these  new  truths  are  pictured. 
We  read  the  same  unbroken  parable  in  "  Love  and  Life " 
and  "  Love  and  Death,"  the  companion  pictures  in  which 
the  painter  spoke  his  message,  perhaps,  most  clearly. 

Life  in  uttermost  surrender  trusts  herself  to  Love. 
Her  frail,  uncertain  form  is  screened  with  his  embracing 
wings.  In  pleading  wistfulness  she  gazes  upwards ;  she 
rests  solely  upon  his  tenderness  and  strength.  Slowly 
Love  leads  her  onwards,  step  by  step  they  climb  the 
difficult  ascent.  Flowers  spring  to  mark  Love's  foot- 
prints, for  Love  forms  the  beauty  of  Life.  And  yet. 
Love  is  shadowed  by  immortal  Death.  In  the  second 
picture  Love  has  become  a  beautiful  child ;  passionately 
he  protests,  as  with  his  tiny  arm  he  strives  to  force  back 
the  strong,  shrouded  figure  he  cannot  comprehend.  Still 
he  struggles  to  guard  dear  Life ;  but  with  calm  compassion 
Death  passes  within.  Life  cannot  live  except  for  Love, 
but  Death  is  the  consummation  of  Life. 

Watts  realised  the  beauty  of  Life  and  Love  and 
Death ;  he  was  equally  conscious  of  the  ugliness  of  sin. 
Jonah  the  prophet,  with  his  expressive  posture,  and  eyes 
aflame  with  frenzied  fire,  still  re-echoes  the  cry,  *'  Yea, 
let  them  turn  every  one  from  his  evil  way,  and  from  the 
violence  that  is  in  their  hands."  "  Mammon  "  is  a  magnifi- 
cent sermon  protesting  against  the  rottenness  of  modern 
commercialism.  The  message  of  "  The  Minotaur "  is 
equally  clear.  "Sic  Transit  Gloria  Mundi "  illustrates  the 
folly  of  cumulative  riches,  and  the  same  lesson  is  again 
enforced  in  the  supremely  fine  conception,  "  For  he  had 
great  possessions." 

io8 


PiM»  P.  HolXTtH. 


LOVE  AND  LIFE. 

a.    r.    WATTt,    R.A 


THE    TATE    GALLERY 

This,  then,  is  what  the  prophet-painter  has  achieved 
— he  has  infused  new  meaning  into  mythological  art. 
But  it  is  not  sufficient  that  symbolic  painting  shall 
suggest  new  thoughts,  for  a  work  of  art  must  charm  the 
eye  as  well  as  satisfy  the  mind.  A  picture  must  be  pictorial, 
and  to  accomplish  this  the  symbolism  that  teaches  must 
form  part  of  the  design  of  the  picture;  every  detail  must 
harmonise  as  truly  as  if  the  symbolism  were  used  for  the 
purpose  of  decoration  alone. 

And  once  more  we  can  say  that  Watts  has  accomplished 
this  primal  necessity  of  a  work  of  art  in  the  greatest  of 
his  pictures.  Rossetti  employed  symbolism  to  assist  the 
disposition  of  his  lines  and  to  aid  his  scheme  of  colour. 
Watts  reversed  the  order,  and  used  his  lines  and  colours 
to  accentuate  the  meaning  of  his  symbols.  The  result 
is  different,  but  in  each  case  there  is  unison.  Both  painters 
retain  beauty,  for  each  preserves  harmony.  One  subordi- 
nated his  symbols  while  the  other  subordinated  his  paint. 

Example  after  example  might  be  cited  ;  they  may  be 
gleaned  from  almost  every  picture  of  the  painter.  The 
fold  of  a  drapery,  the  strong  curve  of  a  line,  the  gleam 
of  a  colour  will  reveal  the  inmost  meaning  of  the  work. 
Think  for  a  moment  of  the  intermingling  blue  and  limpid 
green  that  charms  us  in  the  lovely  presentment  of  "  Hope." 
We  see  these  blended  tints  again  in  "The  Dweller  in  the 
Innermost,"  that  supreme  realisation  of  conscience.  How 
wondrous  is  the  flash  of  illusive  green  that  springs  from 
the  searching  eyes?  This  same  atmosphere  of  starlight 
blue  and  green  surrounds  the  figure  of  "The  All-Pervading." 
It  shadows   Death   as  she   crowns  Innocence  with   Peace. 

109 


PICTURES    IN 

Surely  these  dual  tints  breathe  forth  the  very  essence  of 
the  idea  that  has  inspired  the  work?  Then  again,  there 
is  the  strong  red  of  Faith's  flaming  figure,  with  its 
suggestion  of  fulness  and  power.  This  is  the  colour 
chosen  for  the  widespread  robe  which  enfolds  the  "  Spirit 
of  the  Churches,"  wherein  are  sheltered  the  infant  creeds 
of  the  world.  The  very  flesh-tints  Watts  used  for  his 
personations  bespeak  the  inward  meaning  of  their  character. 
Contrast  the  strong  dull  earth-red  of  Mammon's  flesh  with 
the  cold,  shadowy  greys  of  beautiful  sorrowing  Psyche,  or 
with  the  tender  cream-tints  of  Love's  trembling  body,  or 
again  with  the  warm  living  flesh  of  Eve.  Every  tone  of 
colour  has  its  vital  significance,  its  own  service  in  the 
message  of  the  picture.  And  this  same  intensity  of  sug- 
gestion speaks  with  equal  clearness  in  the  draughtsman- 
ship. How  much  we  learn  of  the  creator's  intention 
from  the  arched  line  of  Hope's  bent  figure,  from  the 
wide  shadowing  wings  of  Love,  or  from  the  draped  folds 
of  Death's  full  shroud,  or  again  from  the  massive  size  of 
the  resting  Dray  Horses.  What  force  of  meaning  is 
conveyed  by  the  grand  and  passionate  lines  in  "  Eve 
Repentant,"  that  tragic  and  supreme  presentment  of  sorrow 
expressed  by  the  human  back.  The  extended  arms  of  the 
prophet  Jonah  accentuate  the  intention  of  the  picture ; 
his  wide-stretched  fingers  compel  us  to  realise  the  inner 
frenzy  of  his  mind.  And  the  same  potent  meaning  speaks 
in  the  straight  falling  lines  of  the  Rich  Young  Ruler's 
robe,  in  the  powerful  curve  of  his  bowed  head,  and  in  the 
uncertain  placing  of  his  jewelled  fingers.  In  this  master- 
work  every  note  of  colour,  every  line  conveys  the  utmost 

no 


THE   TATE    GALLERY 

realisation  of  the  man's  inward  spirit.  Again  and  again 
this  deep  significance  meets  us.  From  the  wavering 
outline  of  Life's  fair  form  we  glean  the  thought  suggested  ; 
from  the  rough,  thick  form  of  the  Minotaur  and  of  Mammon 
we  know  the  very  character  of  the  figures.  It  is  the  same 
in  every  picture,  the  design  unites  with  the  colour  in 
shadowing  the  meaning  of  the  symbol. 

It  has  seemed  fitting  to  dwell  upon  the  literary  signifi- 
cance of  these  pictures  of  imaginative  symbolism.  If  we 
consider  the  work  purely  from  the  technical  standpoint, 
and  without  reference  to  the  meaning  portrayed,  much  of 
the  painting  must  be  said  to  fail.  The  pictures  are  great 
in  spite  of  their  technique  and  not  because  of  it.  Watts 
chose  to  be  the  teacher  rather  than  the  artist ;  often  he 
voluntarily  subordinated  the  technical  quality  of  his  work. 
To  him  the  significance  of  line  and  colour  was  the  primal 
essential.  As  we  have  seen,  he  used  his  paint  to  express 
the  full  force  of  his  symbols. 

It  would  be  easy  to  select  examples  of  uncertain  out- 
lines and  strange  postures.  It  must  be  granted  that  in 
many  of  the  pictures  the  quality  of  the  painting  is  dis- 
agreeable. In  some  of  the  canvases  we  are  astonished  by 
the  use  of  strange  colours,  while  glorious  passages  of  pure 
tints  are  often  placed  in  juxtaposition  with  opposing  tones 
that  do  not  blend.  Yet,  when  we  think  of  the  work  in  its 
entirety,  and  consider  the  paint  as  part  of  the  meaning, 
these  technical  anomalies  seem  to  lose  their  significance. 
I  have  tried  to  show  that  these  symbolic  pictures  fulfil 
the  conditions  of  pictorial  unity — that  they  have  a  special 
and  distinctive  harmony  in  line  and  colour,  in  addition  to 

III 


PICTURES    IN 

enforcing  a  beautiful  idea.  The  pictures  are  not  lyrics, 
they  are  epics  in  paint.  They  utter  fittingly  the  burden 
of  their  message.  Their  very  strangeness  intensifies  their 
meaning.  As  Browning  says,  "  Why  rushed  the  discords 
in,  but  that  harmony  might  be  prized."  At  Millbank  Watts 
speaks  to  us  as  a  prophet.  In  the  early  work  of  "  Life's 
Illusions  "  alone  does  beauty  of  technique  completely  triumph 
over  the  ethical  idea. 

One  portrait  has  been  bequeathed  to  the  Gallery,  a  like- 
ness of  Watts,  painted  by  himself.  It  is  a  work  of  fine 
reticence  and  power,  which  reveals  his  strength  in  depicting 
character.  The  beauty  and  simplicity  of  a  great  personality 
are  perfectly,  and  yet  unconsciously,  realised.  In  portraiture 
the  genius  of  Watts  is  perhaps  most  clearly  manifested. 
And  if  we  wish  to  comprehend  his  power  as  an  artist, 
we  must  go  to  Holland  House,  where  many  of  his  early 
studies  are  collected,  and  still  more  to  the  National  Gallery 
of  portraits  to  see  his  second  gift  to  the  nation. 

It  is  not  possible  here  to  notice  these  works  in  detail. 
Their  power  is  universally  realised.  Each  portrait  is  an 
interpretation  of  character  as  well  as  a  master  achievement 
of  art.  The  work  is  imaginative  rather  than  realistic. 
In  his  portraits  Watts  always  exalted  the  ideal.  He  still 
spoke  his  message  to  mankind.  And  for  this  reason,  his 
presentments  of  men  and  women  are  more  than  perfect 
likenesses — they  are  revelations  of  individual  minds.  He 
caught  the  inward  spirit  of  his  sitters,  and  this  he  im- 
prisoned upon  the  canvas.  At  all  times  it  was  the  dis- 
tinctive gift  of  Watts  to  see  with  new  vision  the  truths 
■that  are  eternal. 

112 


THE    TATE    GALLERY 

"The  utmost  for  the  highest"  was  the  impelling  motive 
of  his  life.  His  record  was  a  chronicle  of  continued 
achievement.  His  entire  life  was  dedicated  to  his  art,  and 
the  outcome  of  his  accomplishment  was  very  great. 

Within  the  limit  of  this  brief  chapter  we  are  of  neces- 
sity compelled  to  omit  much  of  his  work.  Over  his  essays 
in  sculpture  we  may  not  pause.  Perhaps  here  he  was 
most  completely  the  artist  and  least  the  teacher.  There 
is  always  something  great  in  his  manner  of  presenting 
form.  His  grand  bust  of  Clytie,  with  its  flowing,  sumptu- 
ous lines  of  fully  suggested  beauty,  stands  in  the  midst  of 
his  pictures  at  Millbank.  It  is  a  supreme  witness  to  his 
genius. 

It  was  the  desire  of  Watts  to  be  a  prophet,  but  Nature 
had  made  him  an  artist.  In  him  the  dual  characters  were 
united  in  rare  and  complete  harmony.  Nor  need  we  wish 
that  this  had  been  otherwise.  To  say  that  art  may  not 
teach  is  in  itself  a  didactic  statement,  which  savours  of  the 
very  error  that  is  being  combated.  It  is  not  possible  to 
limit  the  scope  of  art.  The  painter  who  avoids  literary  in- 
tention, and  produces  a  symphony  of  colour  or  a  harmony  of 
blending  lines  also  teaches.  One  question  only  have  we 
to  ask  with  regard  to  any  artist.  Has  he  any  message  of 
beauty  or  truth  to  give  to  the  world  ?  And,  after  all,  this 
is  really  asking  what  he  can  teach.  If  a  painter  has  this 
individual  message  his  art  is  great,  indeed,  his  greatness 
is  in  exact  proportion  to  the  personality  which  illumines 
his  work. 


113 


CHAPTER  X 

CLASSIC   ART:     ALBERT   MOORE   (1841-1893) 
ALFRED   STEVENS   (1817-1875) 


CHAPTER  X 


CLASSIC   ART:    ALBERT    MOORE    (1841-1893) 
ALFRED   STEVENS   (1817-1875) 

HE  English  artistic  revival  was  the  out- 
growth of  a  multiplicity  of  ideas.  We 
have  seen  that  the  keynote  of  pre- Raphael- 
ism  was  personality,  and  many  painters 
shared  in  the  renaissance  of  art  who 
followed  distinctive  pathways.  Watts 
dreamed  of  an  art  that  would  again  be  the  servant  of 
Church  and  State.  Alfred  Stevens  strove  to  carry  forward 
in  British  art  the  unbroken  tradition  of  the  Italian  re- 
naissance, while  Albert  Moore  worked  to  create,  and  really 
succeeded  in  revealing,  an  art  that  knew  no  service  except 
the  expression  of  beauty.  He  saw  the  gladness  of  pure 
form,  the  harmony  of  pearly  colour,  and  the  symphony  of 
beautiful  line.  Each  painter  dedicated  his  life  to  the 
achievement  of  his  ideal.  Watts  became  an  apostle  for 
righteousness,  using  art  as  its  revelation,  while  Stevens  and 
Moore  were  disciples  of  that  sense  of  beauty  which  is 
the  eternal  expression  of  art.  They  had  no  desire  to  make 
use  of  art  to  redeem  the  world,  their  wish  was  to  redeem 
art  itself.  Their  goal  was  sundered  from  that  of  the 
prophet-painter,   but   their  sincerity  and  their  devotion   to 

117 


PICTURES    IN 

their  elected  work  was  not  less  great.  Like  him  they  are 
solitary  figures,  parted  from  their  contemporaries  by  the 
inherent  inclinations  of  their  natures,  and  by  the  single- 
ness of  their  aim. 

In  Albert  Moore  the  Greek  spirit  found  a  repository 
of  exquisite  tenderness.  He  sought  to  portray  the  type 
rather  than  the  individual.  In  his  painting  there  is  some- 
thing of  the  quietude,  the  aloofness,  the  pure  intellec- 
tualised  beauty  of  Grecian  art. 

This  aesthetic  perception  came  to  him  as  his  birthright. 
His  father,  his  three  brothers — Edwin,  John  Collingwood, 
and  Henry — were  artists,  while  his  mother  was  related  to 
William  Hilton.  In  such  a  family  specialisation  in  art 
became  essential  to  success.  A  love  of  all  that  was  beau- 
tiful was  the  child's  ruling  instinct.  We  hear  of  his  kneel- 
ing before  a  tall  white  lily,  and  clasping  his  arms  around 
it  in  baby  rapture  at  its  fairness.  This  is  no  solitary 
instance  of  the  deep  consciousness  of  beauty,  which  im- 
pelled Albert  Moore's  spirit  even  in  his  childhood.  Long 
before  he  could  read  he  drew  every  flower  he  could  find, 
gaining  an  almost  passionate  joy  from  their  colour  and 
form.  Upon  one  occasion  he  was  praised  for  a  drawing 
he  had  made  .of  a  Christmas  rose.  "  Next  time  I  will  do 
it  better,"  was  his  answer.  A  tenacity  of  will,  rare  indeed 
in  such  a  nature,  gave  purpose  to  the  boy's  deep  artistic 
perceptions. ,  Before  he  was  ten  he  was  able  to  draw  a 
creditable  portrait,  and  at  sixteen  he  sent  his  first  pictures 
to  the  Academy,  two  water-colour  sketches  of  "  A  Gold- 
finch"  and  "A  Woodcock." 

From  these  childish  years  we  realise  something  of  the 

ii8 


THE    TATE    GALLERY 

distinctiveness  of  Albert  Moore's  nature.  He  was  the  ex- 
ponent of  an  idyllic  art ;  at  all  times  he  strove  to  express 
an  ideal  that  is  permanent.  He  sought  the  beauty  that  is 
primal  and  perfect  rather  than  that  which  is  passionate 
and  conscious.  Very  early  in  his  career  he  recognised  the 
fact  that  a  picture  must  be  decorative — that  it  must  please 
the  eye,  be  harmonious  in  line  and  colour  before  it  can  speak 
to  the  intellect.  This  was  the  painter's  evangel,  to  the  en- 
forcement of  which  he  devoted  his  genius.  He  painted 
beautiful  dreams  to  prove  the  falsity  of  the  ideal  that 
a  picture  must  necessarily  tell  a  story. 

There  was  a  short  period  of  uncertainty,  between  the 
years  1861  and  1865,  before  he  had  discovered  his  true 
bent.  During  this  time  a  few  subject  pictures  were  painted. 
They  were  scenes  drawn  from  the  Old  Testament  history, 
dramatically  rendered  and  handled  with  dexterity.  This 
technical  skill  had  been  won  by  careful  self-training.  For 
a  few  months  the  young  student  had  worked  at  the  York 
school  of  design,  and  for  a  still  shorter  period  he  had 
drawn  from  the  model,  in  the  Academy  Schools.  But  his 
art  was  too  individual  for  such  a  training,  and  he  found 
that  he  could  work  better  alone.  The  chief  event  that 
influenced  these  prentice  years  was  his  friendship  with 
Eden  Nesfield  the  architect.  For  some  time  he  worked 
with  him,  designing  wall  -  papers  and  ceilings,  and  also 
making  many  drawings  for  stained  glass.  This  work 
seems  to  have  riveted  Moore's  thoughts  upon  decora- 
tive composition.  He  realised  how  much  painting  had 
lost  since  it  had  ceased  to  be  regarded  simply  as  one 
part  in  a  scheme  of  decoration.     To   him  it  seemed  that 

119 


PICTURES    IN 

art  was  in  a  state  of  chaos,  destroyed  by  the  modern  illus- 
trative picture.  Formerly  painting  had  shared  something 
of  the  symmetrical  proportions  of  architecture,  for,  of  neces- 
sity, it  had  to  harmonise  with  the  lines  of  the  wall  space 
it  ornamented ;  now  this  sense  of  pictorial  design  was  lost, 
and  beauty  and  harmony  had  become  of  less  moment  than 
literary  intention. 

These  ideas  were  strengthened  by  a  short  stay  in 
Rome  during  the  year  of  1862.  "  Elijah's  Sacrifice,"  one 
subject  picture,  was  painted ;  but  in  1865  Moore  finally 
laid  aside  all  temptation  to  paint  for  popularity,  and  sent 
"  The  Marble  Seat,"  his  first  decorative  picture,  as  a 
challenge  to  the  Academy.  Next  year  two  pictures  were 
painted,  "Pomegranates"  and  "Apricots,"  and  each  season 
new  works  of  pure  beauty  were  fashioned  by  his  hand. 

The  very  titles  of  his  pictures  speak  their  aim.  "A 
Wardrobe,"  "A  Musician,"  "Azaleas,"  "The  Quartette," 
"Seagulls,"  "Shells,"  "The  Dreamers,"  "Blossoms,"  "Read- 
ing Aloud,"  "  Battledore  and  Shuttlecock ; "  these,  among 
many  others,  are  the  idealised  scenes  that  Moore  created. 
They  have  a  beauty  that  is  of  no  special  country  and 
belongs  to  no  time. 

Perhaps  his  most  perfect  study  of  a  single  figure  is 
the  picture  known  as  "  Blossoms,"  which  was  painted  in 
1 88 1,  and  exhibited  in  the  same  year  at  the  Grosvenor 
Gallery.  The  calculation  and  reserve  in  this  classic  panel 
are  supreme.  Its  absolute  quietness  is  equal  to  its  beauty, 
and  we  almost  forget  the  supreme  craftsmanship,  so  skil- 
fully is  it  hidden. 

The   figure  stands  with  her  head  thrown  slightly  back, 

120 


Bf  ptrmiiiim  tf  llu  jtattlyft  C»mfmj, 

74,  Nna  Oxftri  Stmt,  Lmim. 


BLOSSOMS, 

ALIIHT    MOO>t. 


^         OF  TH_       'r 

UNIVERSiTY 


THE    TATE    GALLERY 

against  a  slate  grey  wall,  which  is  made  beautiful  by  a 
mass  of  white  cherry-bloom.  The  long  folds  of  the  tender 
rose-coloured  robe  perfectly  clothe  the  figure.  Her  pale, 
gold  hair  is  circled  with  a  dark  head-dress,  which  is  tied 
with  a  lemon-toned  ribbon.  Curtains  of  a  deeper  rose  tint 
are  draped  above,  and  this  colour  is  repeated  in  the  dull 
red  rug  which  covers  the  black-grey  of  the  ground.  A 
white  drapery  is  cast  upon  a  low  seat,  and  among  its 
folds  rest  a  yellow  marguerite  and  a  bright  red  shell.  A 
spray  of  pale  cherry-blossom  lies  upon  the  rug.  These 
notes  of  colour  render  perfect  the  harmony  of  the  colour- 
scheme.  In  his  life  of  the  painter  Mr.  Baldry  writes  of 
this  picture  as  "a  work  which  will  in  years  to  come  be 
reckoned  among  the  art  classics  of  its  century." 

With  absolute  faithfulness  Albert  Moore  maintained 
his  ideal  of  beauty.  It  is  probable  that  few  of  those  who 
saw  his  dream  creations  year  by  year  comprehended  the 
labour  that  these  harmonies  entailed.  Critics  failed  to 
realise  the  loftiness  of  his  intention.  They  said  his 
pictures  were  very  pretty,  and  then  spoke  of  their  want 
of  meaning.  Moore  was  systematically  misunderstood  ;  he 
never  gained  the  recognition  he  merited.  But  he  had 
looked  deep  into  the  vision  of  all  things  beautiful,  and  he 
refused  to  change  his  artistic  faith. 

No  painter  ever  worked  harder  than  he  did.  He  never 
swerved  from  regarding  his  pictures  as  decorations  of  pure 
line  and  colour.  Every  tint  in  his  colour-schemes  was 
delicately  measured ;  the  arrangement  of  every  line  was 
perfectly  calculated.  Go  and  study  his  pictures,  then  place 
your   hand   before   one  of   those   flashes   of    bright   colour, 

121  Q 


PICTURES    IN 

given  by  a  fan  or  shell  or  some  such  slight,  and  apparently 
unnecessary,  object.  Remove  this  and  all  the  tints  of  faint 
yellow,  peach-bloom  pink,  white  and  blue  seem  meaning- 
less. It  is  those  skilful  touches  that  mark  the  final  note 
in  the  painter's  colour-symphonies.  The  same  perfection 
of  thought  governs  the  arrangement  of  his  draperies. 
Nothing  is  unstudied  in  those  flowing  folds,  which  so 
fully  cover,  and  yet  so  exquisitely  reveal,  the  limbs  they 
clothe.  Often  months  of  work  have  been  given  to  catch 
the  true  folds  of  a  garment.  This  is  no  over-estimate,  it 
is  an  absolute  statement  of  fact.  Moore  robed  his  models 
in  long  ample  folds  of  soft  pale-tinted  Chinese  silk,  he 
then  made  them  move  to  and  fro  before  him,  while  he 
made  manifold  sketches.  He  never  touched  a  fold  or  tried 
to  arrange  the  material  with  his  hands,  but  waited  always 
until  he  caught  naturally  the  effect  he  desired.  To  realise 
the  perfection  of  these  draperies  it  is  only  necessary 
to  compare  them  with  fragments  of  Grecian  sculpture. 
The  folds  reveal  the  same  intimate  harmony  with  the 
forms  they  cover ;  they  convey  the  same  expression  of 
inevitable  beauty.  Think  of  the  four  sleeping  figures 
in  "The  Dreamers,"  or  of  the  single  upright  form  in 
"  Blossoms,"  or  indeed  of  the  women  in  any  of  his  pic- 
tures— they  might  have  stepped  from  the  marbles  of  the 
Parthenon, 

Moore  was  frankly  an  idealist.  His  pictures  are  not 
portraits  of  the  women  whom  he  painted,  for  at  all  times 
he  sought  the  type  in  the  individual.  His  aim  was  to  pre- 
serve the  classic  ideal  of  beauty,  not  to  reproduce  modern 
forms, 

122 


THE    TATE    GALLERY 

He  spared  no  exertion  in  his  desire  to  realise  his 
dreams.  At  the  time  he  was  painting  his  well-known 
pictures  "  Seagulls  "  and  "  Shells,"  he  had  a  special  machine 
made,  a  kind  of  revolving  fan,  which  was  kept  constantly 
in  motion.  In  this  way  a  swift  current  of  air  was  sent 
through  his  studio,  causing  the  draperies  of  his  models  to 
blow  to  and  fro  with  the  exact  effect  of  a  strong  sea-breeze. 
This  is  one  instance  among  many,  for  every  picture  he 
completed  represents  the  same  patient  and  practical 
study. 

One  scene  remains  to  be  recorded.  It  is  the  last  act 
in  a  life  of  rare  fascination.  In  1883  Albert  Moore  was 
attacked  with  blood-poisoning,  and  from  this  illness  he 
never  wholly  recovered.  Seven  years  later  he  learnt  that 
an  operation  would  shortly  be  necessary.  With  perfect 
calmness  he  continued  to  work  during  the  eight  months' 
respite  that  were  granted  to  him.  He  had  completed  his 
picture  "The  Summer  Night,"  when  the  time  drew  near; 
he  then  gave  a  farewell  dinner  to  his  friends,  and  told 
them  he  was  going  for  a  holiday.  Several  months  were 
passed  in  a  private  hospital,  then  he  returned  to  his  work. 
But  next  year  the  disease  reappeared,  and  a  second,  and 
then  a  third  operation  became  necessary.  His  calmness 
and  courage  never  wavered.  He  spoke  of  his  illness  as 
"a  nuisance,  but  not  insupportable,"  while  it  still  left 
him  free  for  nine  months  in  the  year  during  which  he 
could  paint.  To  the  end  his  one  desire  was  to  finish  his 
pictures.  He  had  no  fear  of  death.  Speaking  of  the  time 
when  surgical  aid  would  become  impossible,  he  said,  "Well, 
there  will  be  an  end  of  it."     He  died  on  September  25,  1893. 

123 


PICTURES    IN 

His  last  picture  was    "The   Lives  of  the  Winds  and   the 
Seasons." 

"Lo!  some  we  loved,  the  loveliest  and  the  best 
That  Time  and  Fate  of  all  their  vintage  prest, 
Have  drunk  their  Cups  a  Round  or  two  before 
And  one  by  one  crept  silently  to  Rest." 

"The  fate  of  great  artists  in  the  nineteenth  century  is 
a  score  of  years  of  neglect  and  obloquy,"  wrote  Mr.  George 
Moore.  In  the  case  of  Alfred  Stevens  this  is  certainly 
true,  only  the  fate  was  extended  to  the  term  of  his  life.  The 
two  French  critics  M.  Chesneau  and  M.  de  la  Sizeranne 
unite  to  ignore  both  Albert  Moore  and  Alfred  Stevens, 
when  writing  of  English  art.  Neither  painter  received 
any  due  measure  of  recognition  from  the  Academy,  yet 
each  did  work  which  was  distinctive  among  their  contem- 
poraries. They  paid  the  penalty  of  their  originality  by 
the  neglect  they  suffered. 

The  record  of  Alfred  Stevens'  life  can  be  briefly  traced. 
He  was  born  in  the  Dorsetshire  village  of  Blandford,  of 
very  humble  parentage,  his  father  being  a  sign-painter. 
The  Rector  of  the  village,  recognising  his  early  artistic 
promise,  gave  him  ;^5o,  and  with  this  sum  he  set  forth 
for  Italy,  in  his  fifteenth  year. 

It  was  the  influence  of  Italy  which  determined  his 
future  career.  Seven  years  were  spent  drinking  from  the 
fountains  of  mediaeval  art,  and  in  studying  the  masters  of 
the  Renaissance,  in  Rome,  Florence,  and  Siena.  Salvator 
Rosa  had  been  indicated  to  him  as  a  master  worthy  of 
study,  but  it  was  in  the  school  of  the  Primitives,  and 
especially    from    Giotto,    in    the    Incoronata,    that    the    lad 

124 


THE   TATE    GALLERY 

drew  his  inspiration.  Life  was  one  incessant  toil.  For 
twelve  months  he  worked  with  Thorwaldsen  in  Rome,  and 
when  the  Danish  sculptor  left  the  city  in  1842,  he  returned 
to  England. 

In  1845  Stevens  was  teaching  architecture  and  model- 
ling in  the  London  School  of  Design.  Somewhat  later 
he  went  to  Sheffield  to  design  bronze  and  metal  work  for 
a  firm  of  ironworkers,  and  for  some  years  he  remained 
their  head  artist.  In  1856  he  was  placed  sixth  in  the 
competition  for  the  Wellington  Memorial ;  and  the  com- 
mission was  ultimately  placed  in  his  hands,  though  he  did 
not  live  to  fully  complete  the  work.  Quite  recently  this 
monument  has  been  called  "the  finest  plastic  work  of 
modern  times." 

Alfred  Stevens'  life  was  one  of  silent  toil.  He  found 
the  artist's  delight  in  his  work,  whether  it  was  designing 
a  fire-grate  or  a  tile,  painting  a  picture  or  creating  a  great 
monument.  He  was  rarely  content  with  what  his  hand 
had  wrought,  and  very  little  of  his  work  remains,  owing 
to  his  habit  of  destroying  what  did  not  please  him.  Such 
was  the  great  spirit  of  this  rare  genius,  ever  struggling 
to  rise  nearer  to  his  own  ideal. 

Four  of  his  works  are  in  the  Tate  Gallery.  The 
cartoon  of  "  Isaiah,"  one  of  mosaics  of  the  prophets,  which 
he  designed  to  fill  the  spandrils  under  the  dome  of  St. 
Paul's,  a  portrait  of  Mrs.  Mary  Anne  Collman,  and  two 
wonderful  studies,  "Judith,"  and  "Alfred  and  his  Mother." 
These  sketches  have  been  recently  added  to  the  National 
Collection. 

Much  of  his  best  work  is  in  Dorchester  House,    Park 

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THE    TATE    GALLERY 

Lane.  His  model  of  the  Wellington  Memorial  is  at  South 
Kensington,  while  the  lions  he  designed  for  the  railings 
of  the  British  Museum  are  now  guarded  within  the 
building. 

The  work  of  Alfred  Stevens,  though  little  recognised  in 
his  lifetime,  is  now  seen  to  be  supreme  in  those  qualities 
which  we  are  accustomed  to  associate  most  exclusively 
with  the  Italian  name  of  Michelangelo.  Mr.  Hugh 
Stannus,  in  his  biography  of  Stevens,  says  "  He  did  what 
almost  every  artist  since  the  days  of  Raphael  has  tried 
to  do,  and  failed ;  he  carried  on  the  great  tradition  at  no 
lower  level." 

To  him  was  passed  the  torch  of  the  Italian  Renais- 
sance. He  caught  the  spirit  of  that  great  time  and  made 
it  live  anew.  There  is  hardly  an  evidence  of  English 
feeling  in  his  work  ;  there  is  the  same  vigour  and  strength, 
the  same  noble  majesty  that  animates  the  finest  Renais- 
sance painting  and  sculpture.  Looking  at  the  two  sketches, 
"Judith,"  and  "Alfred  and  his  Mother,"  or  at  the  designs 
for  the  "  Isaiah,"  one  cannot  help  thinking  of  Michel- 
angelo. His  work  remains  a  living  witness  to  a  power 
of  beauty  which  has  existed  unrecognised  among  us. 

A  recent  testimony  to  the  artist's  greatness  has  been 
rendered  by  Professor  Clausen,  in  his  lectures  to  the 
students  of  the  Royal  Academy : — 

"The  only  artist,  as  far  as  I  know,  who  has  been  able 

to   enter   into  and  carry  on  the  tradition   of  Michelangelo 

worthily  is  Alfred  Stevens,  whose  Wellington  Memorial  and 

other  works   stand   alone,  as   continuing  the   spirit   of  the 

Renaissance." 

126 


CHAPTER  XI 

CLASSICAL  ART:  FREDERIC  LORD  LEIGHTON 
(1830-1896);  SIR  LAURENCE  ALMA-TADEMA 
(Born  1836);  SIR  EDWARD  J.  POYNTER  (Born 
1836) 


CHAPTER  XI 

CLASSICAL  ART:  FREDERIC  LORD  LEIGHTON  (i 830-1 896); 
SIR  LAURENCE  ALMA-TADEMA  (Born  1836);  SIR 
EDWARD  J.    POYNTER   (Born    1836) 


N  the  portrait-gallery  of  painters  in  the 
Uffizi  at  Florence  is  the  portrait  of  Lord 
Leighton,  painted  by  himself.  He  has 
chosen  the  Elgin  marbles  as  the  back- 
ground for  his  work,  and  the  fine  head 
stands  forth  gainst  the  Grecian  setting. 
This  portrait  has  been  called  a  symbol.  M.  de  la  Sizer- 
anne  writes:  "At  the  bottom  of  all  the  academic  painting 
of  England,  as  at  the  bottom  of  the  portrait  of  the  President, 
one  is  vaguely  conscious  of  the  procession  of  the  Knights 
of  Phidias."  Like  Albert  Moore,  Leighton  was  inspired 
by  the  decorative  ideal.  Yet  the  two  painters  are  sundered 
by  the  difference  of  their  temperaments ;  while  one  was  im- 
bued with  the  etltos  of  Greece,  the  other  was  an  eclectic, 
carefully  representing  the  Grecian  form.  Thus  the  pictures 
of  the  first  painter  are  Greek  in  spirit,  while  those  of  the 
second,  with  all  their  perfection,  only  echo  the  outward 
beauty  of  Greek  art.  The  contrast  between  the  work  of 
the  two  painters  is  one  of  recreating  and  reproducing;  both 

129  % 


PICTURES    IN 

of  them  have  given  us  beauty,  but  only  one  has  given 
us  life. 

A  study  of  nature  and  an  imitation  of  the  great 
masters  were  the  guiding  principles  of  Leighton's  art. 
This  eclecticism  was  largely  the  outgrowth  of  a  training  re- 
markable for  its  diversity.  In  the  choice  of  his  multifold 
masters  he  followed  the  advice  of  Agostino  Caracci's  well- 
known  sonnet.  At  the  age  of  ten  he  was  studying  in 
Rome.  He  worked  in  the  Berlin  Academy,  at  Dresden, 
and  later  at  Florence,  Frankfort,  Brussels,  Paris,  and  then 
again  at  Rome.  This  catholicity  of  training  was  not  con- 
fined to  art  alone,  but  was  extended  to  every  branch  of 
culture.  Latin  and  Greek  were  learnt  from  his  father,  who, 
being  a  physician,  also  carefully  trained  him  in  the  study 
of  anatomy.  Before  he  was  twelve  Leighton  could  speak 
French,  German,  and  Italian,  and  later  he  thoroughly 
mastered  Spanish.  His  genius  for  painting  unfolded  early, 
and  when  still  a  boy  he  determined  to  devote  his  life 
to  art. 

Hiram  Powers,  the  American  sculptor,  was  consulted 
by  the  boy's  father  with  regard  to  the  wisdom  of  this  de- 
cision. His  answer,  "  Sir,  you  have  no  choice ;  your  son 
is  an  artist  already,"  recalls  the  verdict  given  by  President 
Shee  upon  the  genius  of  the  youthful  Millais. 

Questioned  more  closely  as  to  the  boy's  chance  of 
success,  the  sculptor  further  predicted,  "  Your  son  may 
become  as  eminent  as  he  pleases." 

These  details  are  necessary  if  we  are  to  understand 
Leighton's  art.  His  wide  culture  and  his  eclectic  up- 
bringing were  potent  in  moulding  his  natural  talent.     The 

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THE   TATE    GALLERY 

effect  of  such  a  training  upon  such  a  mind  was  inevitable. 
Leighton's  character  made  him  peculiarly  prone  to  the 
influence  of  academical  classicism.  Energy  and  precision 
were  the  corner-stones  of  his  temperament.  No  detail  of 
his  life  was  trusted  to  chance ;  every  hour  of  each  day  was 
pre-arranged,  and  every  plan  was  fulfilled  with  rigid  and 
unswerving  toil.  An  anecdote,  chronicled  in  the  remini- 
scences of  his  friend  Giovanni  Costa,  enables  us  perfectly 
to  realise  this  strange  mathematical  vein,  which  inter- 
mingled with  a  nature  of  restless  and  artistic  energy. 

The  two  friends  were  travelling  abroad,  when  the  day 
drew  near  for  Leighton  to  depart  for  England.  He  ex- 
pressed deep  sorrow  at  having  to  leave  his  companion,  and 
bewailed  the  necessity  of  his  return.  But  when  pressed  to 
stay,  he  answered  that  it  was  impossible.  Before  he  had 
quitted  London  he  had  arranged  for  his  model  to  meet 
him  at  a  certain  hour  upon  a  certain  day,  and  he  must 
return  to  fulfil  the  appointment. 

This  incident  is  absolutely  characteristic  of  the  man. 
If  genius  is  an  infinite  capacity  for  taking  pains,  then 
indeed.  Lord  Leighton  must  claim  its  fairest  crown.  His 
pictures  were  planned  and  carried  out  with  this  same 
exactitude.  Costa  tells  us  that  he  knew  all  the  qualities 
a  picture  would  have  before  he  laid  hands  upon  it.  He 
had  decided  the  colours  in  which  he  would  complete  the 
design ;  he  knew  the  exact  date  at  which  the  picture  would 
be  finished. 

Leighton's  scrupulously  accurate  and  careful  method  of 
work  is  well  known.  The  first  deeply  studied  design  of 
a  picture  was  to  him  as  a  law  of  the  Medes  and   Persians, 

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PICTURES    IN 

and  might  not  be  changed.  This  was  more  than  a  prin- 
ciple, it  was  a  veritable  gospel.  His  strong  bias  for  artistic 
mathematics,  if  we  may  use  the  phrase,  caused  him  to  fear 
the  influence  of  any  transitory  mood — the  passing  inspira- 
tion of  a  moment  that  would  cause  him  to  swerve  from 
his  initial  ideal.  Like  Plato,  he  held  that  passion  was 
unsuitable  to  art.  He  believed  in  the  permanence  of  art, 
and  purposely  excluded  from  his  work  every  element  of 
emotion  that  might  tend  to  localise  it  or  limit  it  to  one 
special  period.  His  only  picture  that  can  be  called 
dramatic  was  an  early  study  painted  in  Rome,  entitled 
"The  Plague  in  Florence." 

His  pictures  were  built  up  stage  by  stage,  with  the 
same  method  of  planning  and  arranging  that  is  followed 
in  the  construction  of  a  building.  Each  separate  work 
was  completed  with  an  infinitude  of  labour.  The  numerous 
and  beautiful  sketches  which  were  made  for  every  picture 
are  well  known.  In  spite  of  his  classical  inclination  and 
his  foreign  training,  Leighton  was  English  in  his  art.  It 
was  more  necessary  to  him  that  he  should  have  worked 
his  best  than  that  his  pictures  should  be  a  success.  Upon 
one  occasion  a  brother  painter  suggested  that  he  should 
refrain  from  finishing  a  certain  picture,  but  should  retain 
it  as  "a  beautiful  sketch." 

"  No,  I  shall  finish  it ;  and  probably,  as  you  think, 
spoil  it,"  was  Leighton's  answer. 

Leighton  obtained  his  high  reputation  at  one  stroke 
of  the  uncertain  pendulum  of  fame.  Before  1855  he  was 
almost  unknown.  In  that  year  his  first  great  picture, 
"  Cimabue's    Madonna  carried    in   Procession    through   the 

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THE   TATE   GALLERY 

streets  of  Florence,  "was  hung  in  the  Academy,  and  at 
once  a  keen  interest  stirred  the  art  world.  The  critics 
united  in  a  verdict  of  praise.  It  was  the  first  year  in 
which  Mr.  Ruskin  issued  his  Academy  Notes.  A  long 
comment  was  written  upon  the  work,  which  the  famous 
critic  called  "a  very  important  and  very  beautiful  picture"; 
while  he  ended  with  the  statement,  "It  seems  to  me  pro- 
bable that  Mr.  Leigh  ton  has  greatness  in  him." 

The  most  interesting  account  of  the  picture  is  in  a 
letter  of  Gabriel  Rossetti  to  his  friend  William  Allingham. 
He  wrote : — 

"  There  is  a  big  picture  of  Cimabue  by  a  new  man 
living  abroad,  named  Leighton — a  huge  thing  which  the 
Queen  has  bought,  which  every  one  talks  of.  The  R.A.'s 
have  been  gasping  for  years  for  some  one  to  back  against 
Hunt  and  Millais,  and  here  they  have  him  ;  a  fact  which 
makes  some  people  do  the  picture  injustice  in  return.  It 
was  very  uninteresting  to  me  at  first  sight ;  but  on  look- 
ing more  at  it,  I  think  there  is  great  richness  of  arrange- 
ment, a  quality  which,  when  really  existing — as  it  does 
in  the  best  old  masters,  and  perhaps  hitherto  in  no  living 
man,  at  any  rate  English — ranks  among  the  great  qualities. 
But  I  am  not  sure  yet  either  of  this  or  of  the  faculty 
for  colour  which  I  suspect  exists  very  strongly,  but  is 
certainly  at  present  under  a  thick  veil  of  paint,  owing,  I 
fancy,  to  too  much  continental  study.  One  undoubted 
excellence  it  has — facility,  without  much  neatness  or  ultra- 
cleverness  in  the  execution,  which  is  greatly  like  that  of 
Paul  Veronese ;  and  the  colour  may  mature  in  future 
works  to  the  same  resemblance,  I   fancy.     There  is  much 


PICTURES    IN 

feeling  for  beauty,  too,  in  the  women.  As  for  purely- 
intellectual  qualities — expression,  intention,  &c. — there  is 
little  as  yet  of  these,  but  I  think  that  in  art  richness  of 
arrangement  is  so  nearly  allied  to  these,  that  where  it 
exists  (in  an  earnest  man)  they  will  probably  supervene. 
However,  the  choice  of  subject,  though  interesting  in  a 
certain  way  leaves  one  quite  in  the  dark  as  to  what 
faculty  the  man  may  have  for  representing  incident  or 
passionate  emotion.  But  I  believe,  as  far  as  this  showing 
goes,  that  he  possesses  qualities  which  the  mass  of  our 
artists  aim  at  chiefly  and  only  seem  to  possess.  Whether 
he  have  those  of  which  neither  they  nor  he  give  sign,  I 
cannot  tell  ;  but  he  is  said  only  to  be  twenty-four  years 
old.  There  is  something  very  French  in  his  work  at 
present,  which  is  the  most  disagreeable  thing  about  it ; 
but  this  I  dare  say  would  leave  him  if  he  came  to 
England." 

I  make  no  apology  for  quoting  this  well-known  estimate 
in  full,  for  it  summarises  all  that  is  essential  in  Leighton's 
art.  Already  his  style  was  moulded.  This  first  important 
effort  testifies  how  early  he  adopted  that  ideal  of  decorative 
art  which  he  afterwards  so  steadfastly  pursued.  Intel- 
lectual qualities  were  purposely  excluded  from  his  work. 
No  interest  of  incident  or  emotion  was  even  permitted 
to  interfere  with  the  classic  unity  of  his  subject.  His 
compositions  were  chosen  for  their  scenic  possibilities,  and 
charm  was  gained  by  the  pictorial  harmony  of  the  arrange- 
ment, or  by  the  careful  grouping  of  studied  types  of 
beautiful  figures.  Even  the  paint  was  used  as  a  con- 
ventional  garment   to   present   the   idea,    rather  than   as   a 

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THE    TATE    GALLERY 

living  medium,   in  itself  possessed  of  beauty.      These  are 
characteristics  which  never  left  the  painter's  work. 

It  would  be  superfluous  to  dwell  in  detail  upon  the 
history  of  the  years  that  followed.  Leighton's  pictures  are 
too  well  known  for  it  to  be  necessary  to  particularise  their 
merits,  while  little  would  be  gained  from  the  mere  record  of 
their  titles. 

In  the  beautiful  "  Psyche "  of  the  Tate  Gallery  we  see 
an  epitome  of  his  power.  Many  of  his  pictures  are  greater 
triumphs  of  technical  achievement,  notably  the  processional 
*'  Daphnephoria "  and  "  The  Captive  Andromache,"  others, 
such  as  "The  Summer  Moon,"  "The  Music  Lesson," 
"Wedded,"  or  "The  Last  Watch  of  Hero,"  are  more 
popular,  while  "Cymon  and  Iphigenia,"  "Greek  Girls  play- 
ing at  Ball,"  "The  Garden  of  the  Hesperides,"  as  well  as 
many  others,  are  more  sumptuously  beautiful,  but  none  of 
his  works  expresses  more  truly  that  polished  grace  which 
was  Leighton's  essential  gift. 

Psyche  stands  gazing  down  upon  her  bath,  her  figure 
is  half-turned  as  she  casts  aside  her  flowing  drapery  of 
transparent  white.  Her  lemon  robe  and  girdle  of  pure 
blue  rest  upon  the  marble,  one  edge  of  the  garment  falls 
over  the  margin  and  dips  into  the  bath.  The  limpid  water 
reflects  the  draperies  of  white  and  yellow,  and  a  large 
copper  vase,  standing  upon  the  pavement.  Behind  the 
figure  rises  a  colonnade  of  marble  columns ;  their  grey- 
white  is  relieved  with  gold  coloured  capitals  and  bases. 
Between  the  columns  hangs  a  deep  purple  curtain,  which 
falls  in  long  rich  folds,  while  above  is  the  sky,  a  decorative 
arrangement  of  blue  and  cloud. 

»35 


PICTURES    IN 

The  original  design  of  Psyche  was  executed  as  a  panel 
for  the  house  of  Lord  Leighton,  and  the  charm  of  the 
picture  is  gained  from  its  decorative  qualities.  As  an 
arrangement  of  harmonious  lines  it  has  exquisite  beauty. 

Very  different  is  the  second  picture  in  the  Gallery, 
"The  Sea  gave  up  its  Dead."  The  composition  is  an 
effort  to  realise  the  imagery  of  the  Book  of  the  Revelations. 
"And  I  saw  a  great  white  throne,  and  him  that  sat  on 
it  .  .  .  And  I  saw  the  dead,  small  and  great,  stand  before 
God  .  .  .  And  the  sea  gave  up  the  dead  which  were  in 
it ;  and  death  and  hell  delivered  up  the  dead  that  were  in 
them ;  and  they  were  judged  every  man  according  to  his 
works."  A  conception  of  intense  dramatic  power  is  here 
treated  as  pure  decoration.  There  is  a  haunting  memory 
of  Michelangelo  in  the  figures  and  in  the  arrangement 
of  the  slab-like  strata  of  the  foreground.  The  classic 
restraint  lends  dignity  to  the  theme,  and  the  picture  has  a 
certain  cold  grace  that  is  almost  grand.  And  if  the  work 
fails  to  fully  realise  the  scene,  it  is  a  great  failure. 

Loftiness  of  aim  was  the  primal  motive  of  Leighton's 
art.  M.  de  la  Sizeranne  names  his  picture  "The  Spirit 
of  the  Summit,"  as  a  fit  emblem  of  his  work.  "  He  might 
have  called  the  picture  'The  Spirit  of  my  Painting,'"  says 
the  distinguished  French  critic.  And  his  judgment  is  right. 
The  echo  of  the  painter's  own  words  seems  to  come  to  us, 
in  imagination,  from  that  pure  form  seated  amidst  the 
starlit  Alpine  heights: — "Whatever  of  dignity,  whatever  of 
strength  we  have  within  us  will  dignify  and  make  strong 
the  labour  of  our  hands ;  whatever  littleness  degrades  our 
spirit  will  lessen  and  drag  them  down.      Whatever  noble 

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THE   TATE    GALLERY 

fire  is  in  our  hearts  will  burn  also  in  our  work,  whatever 
purity  is  ours  will  chasten  and  exalt  it." 

"  Leighton  has  painted  many  noble  pictures,  but  his 
life  is  more  noble  than  them  all."  This  was  the  testi- 
mony of  Mr.  G.  F.  Watts. 

The  painter's  work  has  not  yet  been  appraised  by  time. 
It  is  possible  that  in  the  years  to  come  his  pictures  will 
be  accounted  among  the  great  achievements  of  his  century. 
But  be  this  as  it  may,  the  greatness  of  the  man  will 
triumph  even  if  the  fame  of  the  artist  fails.  This  is  no 
place  to  record  his  catholic  sympathy  or  his  unnumbered 
acts  of  generous  help.  Yet  this  at  least  we  may  say, 
no  man  has  done  more  for  British  art  than  Lord  Leighton, 
her  greatest  President.  The  painter  once  wrote  a  eulogy 
of  Albrecht  Diirer;  well,  indeed,  may  the  words  be  applied 
to  his  own  character  and  work : — "  He  was  a  man  of  a 
strong  and  upright  nature,  bent  on  pure  and  high  ideals 
...  he  was  a  thinker,  a  theorist,  and  a  writer  .  .  . 
superbly  inexhaustible  as  a  designer;  as  a  draughtsman 
he  was  powerful,  but  never  without  a  certain  mannerism 
of  hand,  wanting  in  spontaneous  simplicity — never  broadly 
serene.  In  his  colour  he  was  rich  and  vivid,  not  always 
unerring  in  his  harmonies,  not  alluring  in  his  execution — 
withal  a  giant." 

We  cannot  sever  from  Lord  Leighton  the  two  painters 
who  form  with  him  the  great  triad  of  modern  British 
classicists.  I  refer  of  course  to  Sir  Laurence  Alma- 
Tadema  and  Sir  Edward  Poynter.  The  art  of  to-day  owes 
much  to  these  painters  of  beautiful  form.     Their  work  has 

137  » 


PICTURES    IN 

been  "  a  protest  against  the  dangers  of  a  negligent  and 
indifferent  view  of  the  high  requirements  of  the  artist." 
These  are  the  words  of  Sir  Edward  Poynter.  They 
epitomise  the  exalted  ideal  that  has  always  animated  the 
classical  brotherhood. 

With  a  certain  amount  of  truth  it  may  be  said  that 
the  mantle  of  Lord  Leighton  has  descended  upon  Sir 
Edward  Poynter.  We  see  the  same  scholarly  composi- 
tion, the  same  cold  realisation  of  a  scene.  In  intention 
their  work  is  the  same  although  in  execution  it  is  distinct. 

"  A  Visit  to  ^sculapius,"  Sir  E.  Foynter's  work  in  the 
Tate  Gallery,  is  a  fine  example  of  his  power  in  rendering 
classical  form. 

The  picture  illustrates  the  old  legend  : — 

"In  time  long  past,  when  in  Diana's  chase, 
A  bramble  bush  prickt  Venus  in  the  foot, 
Old  iEsculapius  healpt  her  heavie  case 
Before  the  hurte  had  taken  any  roote." 

The  picture  is  a  classic  fable,  visibly  and  intentionally 
legendary.  The  figures  of  Venus  and  her  attendants  bear 
a  certain  memory  of  Michelangelo ;  all  the  design,  and 
especially  the  arrangement  of  the  beautiful  leafy  back- 
ground are  perfect.  What  we  miss  is  the  charm  of  tone 
and  colour. 

There  is  more  personality  in  the  classicism  of  Alma- 
Tadema,  and  within  the  limits  of  his  distinctive  capacity 
no  painter  has  achieved  greater  triumphs.  He  is  the 
archaeologist  of  classical  beauty,  and  his  pictures  may  be 
called  an   encyclopedian  treatise   upon   this   subject.      It  is 

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THE    TATE    GALLERY 

this  rare  union  of  classicism  with  realism  that  marks  the 
individuality  of  his  art.  It  has  been  said  that  he  has 
"  put  the  antique  world  into  slippers  and  dressing-gown." 
The  real  truth  is  that  his  pictures  carry  with  them  a 
strange  memory  of  the  Dutch  genre  paintings  of  his  own 
land.  We  see  the  instinct  for  depicting  intimate  interiors 
perfectly  translated  into  an  era  of  Latin  sumptuousness- 
It  is  not  difficult  to  account  for  this  remarkable  inter- 
mingling of  motives.  The  Dutch  boy  was  a  natural 
artist,  and  his  first  knowledge  of  painting  was  gained  in 
the  little  Frisian  village  in  which  he  was  born.  In  his 
youth  he  was  trained  in  the  Antwerp  Academy,  under 
Baron  Wappers,  the  great  master  of  technique,  while  after- 
wards he  worked  in  the  studio  of  the  historical  painter, 
Baron  Leys.  Here,  then,  we  find  united  the  essentials 
of  these  pictures  of  classical  genre — minute  realism,  per- 
fect technical  ability,  and  a  strong  sense  of  historical  style. 
The  nett  result  is  a  wonderful  technical  achievement,  that 
gives  us  a  sure,  if  somewhat  cold,  revelation  of  classical 
beauty. 


>39 


CHAPTER  XII 

POETIC  ART:  FREDERICK  WALKER  (1840-1875) ; 
GEORGE  HEMING  MASON  (1818-1873);  JOHN 
WILLIAM   NORTH   (Born    1842) 


CHAPTER  XII 

POETIC  ART:  FREDERICK  WALKER  (1840-1875);  GEORGE 
HEMING  MASON  (181 8-1873);  JOHN  WILUAM  NORTH 
(Born  1842) 


ALKER  is  the  greatest  artist  of  the  cen- 
tury, and  George  Mason  the  biggest 
genius  of  the  present  day."  This  was 
the  estimate  of  Sir  John  Millais,  and 
perhaps  he  is  right. 

For  the  third  time  we  have  come  to 
a  triad  of  great  painters,  for  J.  W.  North  must  be  included 
in  this  group  of  poetic  workers.  The  three  painters  were 
impelled  by  a  united  impulse,  which  gives  them  a  special 
niche  in  the  elysium  of  British  art.  They  stand  alone 
among  their  contemporaries.  Their  pictures  have  the  rare 
quality  of  mystery ;  they  give  us  an  impression  of  a  scene, 
captured,  and  then  expressed.  These  painters  are  the 
transcendentalists  of  art.  They  show  us  a  new  relation 
between  man  and  the  phenomena  of  nature.  Their  pic- 
tures do  not  give  us  a  photographic  duplication,  they 
clothe  the  real  scene  with  the  colour  and  glamour  of  an 
inspired  imagination.  In  them  we  see  the  response  of  the 
individual  soul  to  the  beauty  of  nature. 

For  the  work  of  each  painter  was  the  compelling  out- 

»43 


PICTURES    IN 

growth  of  his  own  personality.  Thus  their  pictures  vary 
in  their  expression,  although  the  same  idyllic  charm  breathes 
in  them  all. 

A  curious  hesitancy  was  the  keynote  to  Frederick 
Walker's  character.  He  saw  nature  in  detail  rather  than 
as  a  whole.  It  has  been  said  that  if  necessity  had  not 
compelled  him  he  would  never  have  finished  a  single 
picture.  Never  was  he  satisfied  with  his  own  attempts ; 
he  painted  and  repainted  in  strife  of  spirit,  struggling  to 
attain  his  ideal.  Again  and  again  he  returned  to  work 
upon  the  same  motives.  Often  he  was  inarticulate ;  for 
hours  he  would  sit  before  his  canvas  in  utter  misery  unable 
to  paint.  In  his  nature  two  conflicting  purposes  seem 
ever  to  have  been  at  war.  He  had  much  of  the  Greek 
spirit ;  at  all  times  he  was  intimately  conscious  of  ideal 
beauty,  but  he  was  without  the  unity,  the  coldness,  and 
the  restraint  of  the  classic  attitude.  He  sought  to  realise 
idyllic  beauty  with  the  restlessness  of  a  modern  tempera- 
ment. 

This  uncertainty  of  motive  deeply  influenced  Walker's 
work.  Continually  in  his  pictures  we  discern  this  struggle 
for  full  realisation ;  almost  all  his  compositions  are  built 
up  of  unrelated  centres,  wherein  passages  of  perfect  beauty 
alternate  with  sentiment  and  weakness.  His  pictures  are 
a  series  of  exquisite  episodes ;  rarely  do  they  attain  a 
perfectly  united  impression.  Perhaps  for  this  reason 
Walker's  art  is  strongly  appealing ;  its  very  uncertainty 
enkindles  a  chord  of  peculiar  sympathy  that  a  more  calm 
and  perfectly  balanced  beauty  could   not   awaken.      Some- 

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thing   within    us    responds    to    the    suggestiveness    of   his 
work. 

One  further  point  must  be  noted.  A  love  for  anecdotic 
romanticism  often  mingles  with  Walker's  classic  instinct 
for  ideal  form.  It  is  impossible  to  deny  that  in  many  of 
his  pictures  the  figures  are  sentimental  ;  true,  the  senti- 
ment is  beautiful  and  imaginative,  yet  nevertheless  these 
trivial  conceptions  weaken  many  of  his  compositions. 

It  may  be  this  tendency  arose  from  the  necessity  which 
compelled  him  for  many  years  to  illustrate  stories  for 
Thackeray,  in  the  Com/till  Magazine  and  in  Once  a 
JVeek.  In  one  way  this  work  was  good  for  the  young 
artist,  for  the  black  and  white  work  did  much  to  coun- 
teract his  constitutional  hesitancy  of  expression. 

It  would  appear  that  during  these  years  the  Greek  side 
of  Walker's  temperament  was  in  abeyance.  In  his  early 
pictures,  such  as  "Philip  in  Church,"  "The  First  Swallow," 
or  the  four  designs  of  "  The  Seasons,"  the  subject  is 
directly  rendered.  These  efforts  are  less  poetic  and  less 
classical,  but  more  homogeneous  than  his  later  works, 
where  we  nearly  always  find  beauty  intermingled  with 
uncertainty. 

Perhaps  no  picture  illustrates  these  facts  more  entirely 
than  "The  Vagrants."  The  work  was  painted  in  1868. 
It  must  be  classified  with  "The  Bathers,"  "The  Old 
Gate,"  "  The  Plough,"  and  "  The  Harbour  of  Refuge,"  the 
pictures  that  were  the  supreme  accomplishment  of  the 
painter's  last  years. 

The  scene  has  many  elements  of  beauty,  but  it  misses 
true  harmony  of  interest.     Study  the  composition,  and  you 

145  T 


PICTURES    IN 

will  see  there  is  no  sense  of  inevitableness  either  in  the 
landscape  or  in  the  grouping  of  the  figures.  The  moor- 
land scene,  with  its  marshy  distance  and  background  of 
stunted  brushwood,  is  painted  with  almost  niggling  care- 
fulness. The  tints  are  fine  and  the  colour-scheme  good, 
and  yet  we  do  not  gain  a  clear  impression  of  the  autumnal 
landscape.  We  are  conscious  that  the  painter's  poetic 
feeling  has  been  deeper  than  his  pictorial  perception. 

If  we  turn  to  the  figures  we  find  they  correspond  with 
the  landscape,  but  they  do  not  belong  to  one  another.  The 
strongly  conceived  form  of  the  woman,  who  stands  with 
her  arms  folded,  passionate  and  beautiful,  seems  to  have 
no  part  with  the  group  around  the  fire.  Her  figure  is 
almost  perfect,  but  she  is  an  added  incident,  of  supreme 
beauty  it  is  true,  yet  not  an  essential  point  of  the  pictorial 
scheme.  It  is  the  same  with  the  remaining  figures.  The 
woman  nestling  her  child,  as  she  sits  crouched  upon  the 
hillside,  is  simple  and  very  beautiful,  but  the  young  boy 
who  leans  forward  to  kindle  the  new-made  fire  is  singu- 
larly unconvincing.  His  attitude  is  forced  and  even  trivial. 
There  can  be  little  doubt  the  picture  would  be  finer  were 
he  omitted.  A  third  interest  is  centred  in  the  kind  sister 
comforting  her  little  brother.  Here  we  have  an  instance 
of  that  pseudo-sentiment  which  accords  so  strangely  with 
the  classic  beauty  of  these  idealised  peasants.  The  entire 
work  is  conceived  in  parts,  and  beauty  is  pursued  rather 
than  held  as  a  captive  by  the  painter's  art. 

In  the  far  finer  picture  of  "The  Harbour  of  Refuge" 
these  limitations  are  hardly  manifest.  The  unity  of  the 
idea  gives   harmony  to   the   unconnected   grouping  of  the 

146 


THE   TATE   GALLERY 

figures,  while  a  true  pictorial  effect  is  achieved  by  the 
careful  distribution  of  light  and  by  the  cadence  of  glowing 
colour.  The  brush-work  is  delicate  and  detailed,  but  there 
is  greater  breadth  than  in  the  painting  of  "  The  Vagrants." 
This  subject  appealed  intimately  to  Fred  Walker,  whose 
im^ination  was  at  all  times  poetic.  His  finest  pictures 
treat  of  the  primal  emotions.  Here  we  have  youth  and 
age  sharply  contrasted  with  the  suggested  idea  of  life  and 
death.  The  landscape  repeats  the  theme ;  the  scythe  of 
the  mower  sweeps  down  the  daisied  grass,  the  thorn-tree, 
with  its  full  glory  of  blossom,  tells  of  the  gladness  of  birth, 
while  the  glory  of  the  slowly  fading  sun,  which  bathes  the 
sky  in  yellow  glory,  foretells  the  departing  of  day. 

Like  all  Fred  Walker's  work  it  is  possible  to  criticise 
the  picture.  It  is  not  difficult  to  see  that  the  grace  of  the 
young  mower — the  most  classical  of  all  his  peasants — 
interferes  with  the  reality  of  his  action.  He  wears  his 
classicism  as  a  garment,  it  is  not  part  of  himself.  Again 
the  face  of  the  girl  is  strangely  incomplete,  only  her 
haloed  crown  of  bright  copper-coloured  hair  is  perfect. 
It  almost  seems  as  if  the  artist  had  failed  to  realise 
his  idea.  The  contrast  between  her  figure  and  that  of 
the  bowed  woman  she  leads  down  the  steps  is  perhaps 
over  accentuated.  It  may  even  be  said  that  the  wondrous 
colour-scheme  of  glowing  reds  is  a  little  hot.  And  yet, 
the  beauty  of  the  picture  remains.  It  may  want  perfectly 
balanced  composition,  but  it  is  the  expression  of  an  artist 
who  was  also  a  poet,  and  it  is  filled  with  the  suggestion 
of  beauty. 

In  this  brief  survey  I  have  only  been  able  to  indicate 

>47 


PICTURES    IN 

the  main  tendencies  of  Walker's  art.  I  have  said  nothing 
in  detail  of  his  life,  so  short  and  yet  so  rich  in  its  abundant 
harvest.  In  his  case  such  a  record  is  unnecessary.  One 
thing  alone  we  need  to  remember  of  poor  Fred  Walker,  that 
a  great  gift  of  beautiful  thought  was  his  natural  inheritance. 
His  genius  was  so  bounded  by  incompleteness,  his  con- 
ception of  beauty  so  combined  with  weakness,  that  it  is 
specially  difficult  to  write  of  his  work.  Continually  we 
meet  him  in  a  new  mood ;  we  need  to  study  all  his  work. 
There  are  simple  nature  scenes,  such  as  "  The  Street, 
Cookham,"  "A  Rainy  Day,"  or  the  water-colour  painting 
of  "The  Housewife,"  a  study  of  a  girl  shelling  peas,  where 
we  see  no  struggle  of  conflicting  motives.  Again,  there 
are  humorous  sketches  like  "The  Three  Fates,"  or  scenes 
of  pure  impression  such  as  "The  Mushroom  Gatherers." 
But  these  works  are  not,  I  think,  Walker's  truest  expres- 
sion of  himself.  His  deepest  thoughts  did  not  readily  find 
utterance,  and  the  throes  of  painful  birth  are  found  in  his 
greatest  work.  And  this  loss  was  not  without  its  gain. 
"  Fancies  that  broke  through  language  and  escaped  "  speak 
to  us  in  these  pictures  with  a  special  voice  of  infinite  charm. 

In  strong  contrast  with  Frederick  Walker's  beautiful 
and  uncertain  dreams  are  the  perfectly  realised  idylls  of 
George  Heming  Mason.  The  two  painters  are  united  by 
the  poetic  quality  of  their  work,  and  by  the  fact  that  they 
both  found  this  classic  rhythm  of  line  and  colour  in 
English  landscape  and  in  English  peasants.  But  while 
the  work  of  one  breathes  poetic  suggestion,  the  pictures 
of  the  other  express  a  complete  poetic  impression. 

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Let  me  make  this  clear  by  means  of  an  illustration. 
One  day  I  was  talking  to  a  friend  of  the  pictures  at  Mill- 
bank.  My  companion  said,  "There  is  one  lovely  picture; 
I  forget  its  title,  and  I  do  not  know  who  painted  it,  but 
it  is  a  little  landscape  all  wind  and  movement."  There 
was  no  need  to  say  anything  more.  I  knew  at  once  that 
the  picture  was  Mason's  "Wind  on  the  Wold." 

This  power  of  conveying  a  supreme  impression  is  the 
dominant  note  of  Mason's  genius.  His  landscapes,  and 
still  more  his  figures,  have  not  the  tragic  pathos,  the 
depth,  the  wistful  tenderness,  that  charm  us  in  many  of 
Fred  Walker's  conceptions,  but  we  feel  a  thrill  of  artistic 
response  that  answers  to  the  unity  of  his  appeal,  and  the 
work  of  few  painters  g^ves  us  the  same  unconditional 
pleasure. 

Mason's  life  was  one  of  romantic  incident,  wherein 
periods  of  deep  misery  alternated  with  success.  He  was 
trained  for  the  medical  profession,  and  we  first  hear  of 
him  gaining  a  medal  for  attending  the  cholera  patients 
in  the  Birmingham  Hospital.  But  Mason  was  an  artist 
at  heart,  and  his  first  picture,  a  romantic  scene  of  "  Gil 
Bias  in  the  Cave  of  the  Robber,"  was  painted  when  he 
was  only  sixteen.  In  1845  ^^  went  to  Italy,  and  in  Rome 
he  determined  to  devote  his  life  to  painting.  Five  years 
of  terrible  struggle  ensued.  His  father,  a  master-potter 
and  a  man  of  influential  position  in  Staffordshire,  now 
lost  his  money.  Mason  was  left  with  only  his  painting 
to  support  him.  For  some  years  he  literally  starved. 
He  lived  in  an  empty  room,  his  only  covering  a  torn 
fragment  of  an  old  carpet,  while  for  several  weeks  he  had 

149 


PICTURES    IN 

no  food  except  polenta  and  salt.  At  one  time  he  was 
three  days  without  food  ;  he  then  crawled  into  the  streets, 
where  he  found  a  cake  cast  aside  by  a  child  in  the  Pincio 
Gardens.  Mason  never  quite  lost  heart,  though  broken 
health  and  nervous  gloom  were  the  heritage  of  these  years 
of  strife.  He  did  not  doubt  that  ultimately  he  would 
succeed  in  his  work.  "  If  I  live,  I  will  astonish  you  all," 
was  his  remark  to  his  friend  Mr.  Aitchison. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  detail  further  the  history  of  these 
Italian  years.  Before  1855  the  struggle  was  over.  In  1857 
a  first  picture,  "  Ploughing  in  the  Campagna,"  was  sent  to 
the  Academy,  and  from  this  time  Mason's  position  as  an 
artist  was  assured. 

The  salt  marshes  of  the  Campagna  held  his  imagination, 
and  there  he  painted  many  scenes  that  foreshadowed  his 
English  idylls.  Many  of  his  pictures  originated  in  literary 
motives ;  often  a  verse  of  poetry  would  suggest  a  subject, 
while  at  other  times  his  inspiration  came  from  the  effect 
of  a  colour  harmony  or  from  the  curve  of  a  beautiful  line. 
Mason  cared  little  for  picturesque  incidents.  His  pictures 
are  idealised  impressions  of  his  own  imagination  rather 
than  copies  of  the  scenes  he  actually  saw.  He  meditated 
continually  upon  his  subjects,  never  painting  until  the 
whole  scene  was  clearly  visioned  in  his  mind. 

It  must  remain  a  question  of  uncertainty  whence 
Mason  derived  the  vivifying  germ  that  first  enkindled  his 
imagination.  His  pictures  painted  before  he  came  to 
Italy  are  stagey  and  dramatic  rather  than  idyllic.  In  1853 
he  gained  the  friendship  of  Leighton  and  Giovanni  Costa, 
and  for  some  time  the  three  painters  worked  together.     It 

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seems  probable  that  Mason  was  influenced  by  the  painting 
of  the  young  Italian  landscapist.  That  this  is  no  fancy 
may  be  proved  by  Costa's  "  Landscape,  with  a  view  of  the 
Carrara  Mountains,"  also  in  the  Tate  Gallery.  This  picture 
does,  indeed,  seem  to  suggest  the  seed  of  Mason's  work. 
A  visit  paid  to  Paris,  in  1855,  probably  made  Mason  ac- 
quainted with  the  pictures  of  Jules  Breton,  and  he  can 
hardly  fail  to  have  been  impressed  with  a  genius  so 
much  in  sympathy  with  his  own.  These  forces  may  have 
helped  to  mould  his  expression,  but  his  art  was  essentially 
an  individual  outgrowth.  Italy  spoke  deeply  to  his  spirit. 
He  learnt  the  beauty  of  ideal  form  in  these  years  spent 
at  the  fountain  source  of  art. 

In  1858  Mason  returned  to  England,  and  settled  with 
his  wife  at  Wetley  Abbey,  the  ruined  manor-house  of  his 
forebears.  He  was  intensely  sensitive  to  every  external 
influence,  and  once  more  a  period  of  gloom  shadowed  his 
life.  His  artist's  spirit  cried  for  the  southern  warmth  of 
Italy.  He  could  see  no  beauty  in  the  bleak,  grey  land- 
scape that  lay  around  him,  while  the  Staffordshire  labourer 
brought  him  no  inspiration.  He  became  mute  with  suffer- 
ing and  could  not  paint.  The  awakening  came  to  him 
from  Frederick  Leighton.  Here  is  the  story  as  it  is  re- 
lated by  Signer  Costa: — 

"  Mason  lived  almost  in  misery,  hidden  from  the  world, 
burdened  with  children,  without  hope  or  light.  But  the 
light  came  to  him  from  Leighton,  who  went  to  him  in 
his  solitude,  took  him  with  him  and  showed  him  the 
exquisite  beauties  of  the  country,  making,  in  a  little  sketch- 
book,  drawings    for  schemes   for    future   pictures.     It  was 

'5' 


PICTURES    IN 

as  if  he  reopened  his  eyes  and  inspired  him  with  new 
life." 

The  painter  now  saw  all  things  clearly ;  away  from  men, 
on  the  solitary  moorlands  of  Staffordshire  he  found  the 
fulness  of  his  genius.  For  the  first  time  he  learnt  the 
supreme  loveliness  of  common  life.  And  it  was  from  the 
mastery  of  this  lesson,  when  he  had  saturated  himself  with 
its  spirit,  that  he  was  able  to  paint  his  finest  pictures. 

The  first  outgrowth  of  this  newly  awakened  power  was 
the  exquisite  "Wind  on  the  Wold." 

No  phrasing  of  cold  words  can  describe  the  idyllic  poetry 
of  this  small  picture.  The  swift  blowing  of  the  wind,  the 
strong  feeling  of  movement,  the  suggestion  of  young  life  in 
the  girl  and  in  the  driven  heifers,  the  ragged  trees,  stretch- 
ing twisted  limbs  before  the  gale,  the  supreme  sensitive- 
ness, the  cadence  of  quiet  colour,  the  perfect  harmony — 
we  see  these  things,  and  the  full  beauty  sinks  into  our 
spirit  and  leaves  us  dumb. 

Never  again  did  Mason  paint  Italian  scenes.  His  pic- 
tures have  been  called  "  little  coloured  cameos  of  English 
life."  Neither  the  landscape  nor  the  figures  tell  any  story ; 
the  pictures  speak  directly  for  themselves.  The  motives 
are  always  simple,  in  only  two  compositions,  "The  Harvest 
Moon,"  and  "The  Evening  Hymn,"  is  there  even  a  sugges- 
tion of  a  subject.  The  beauty  arises  from  the  true  pictorial 
quality  of  the  work.  "  The  Blackberry  Gatherers,"  "  Home 
from  Milking,"  "  The  Young  Anglers,"  "  Unwilling  Play- 
mates," "Matlock,  Evening,"  "Wetley  Moor,"  "Girls  Danc- 
ing," "The  Cast  Shoe,"  and  many  others,  are  all  scenes 
of  untranslatable  charm.     Perfect  unity  exists  between  the 

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THE   TATE    GALLERY 

idea  and  the  realisation.  The  figures  are  always  congru- 
ous with  the  landscape ;  the  intermingled  notes  of  colour 
have  supreme  concord.  These  painted  idylls  are  exquisite 
glimpses  of  beauty  imprisoned  for  our  gaze. 

Mark  the  perfect  quietness  of  "The  Cast  Shoe."  No 
picture  that  Mason  has  painted  more  abounds  in  poetic 
sentiment.  There  is  no  false  note,  no  building  up  of 
effect.  We  see  a  wild  marsh,  and  in  the  foreground  a 
shallow  pool,  rush-fringed.  The  time  is  evening,  the  sun 
has  sunk,  and  the  sky  is  left  with  a  radiance  of  full  red. 
In  the  distance,  gaunt  against  the  sky,  stands  a  long  line  of 
weather-driven  trees.  The  white  horse  plods  slowly  over 
the  rough  track,  while  a  few  paces  in  front  walks  a  lad, 
clad  in  a  rustic  blouse.  His  red  neckerchief  gleams 
bright  with  colour;  in  his  hand  he  carries  the  cast  shoe. 
The  shadow  of  the  white  horse  is  reflected  in  the  water, 
and  the  ducks  that  swim  among  the  sedges  repeat  the 
note  of  light,  making  perfect  the  symphony  of  the  colour- 
scheme. 

The  picture  was  painted  in  1865,  after  Mason  had  left 
Staffordshire  and  gone  to  live  in  London.  But  the  land- 
scape is  a  picture  of  Wetley  Common,  and  the  moorland 
scene  is  supremely  realised. 

Mason  died  in   1872,  in  his  fifty-fourth  year. 

"  If  I  could  only  put  all  I  know  into  a  healthy  body 
with  young  eyes,  I  would  paint  the  finest  pictures  ever 
seen." 

This  remark  Mason  made  a  few  months  before  he 
died.  It  seems  probable  he  was  mistaken.  His  work 
would   have   lost,    and    not    gained,   had    his    constitution 

153  o 


PICTURES    IN 

been  more  robust.     It  would  have   missed   the  tender  ex- 
quisiteness,  which  is  its  special  charm. 

It  is  left  to  say  one  word  of  the  work  of  J.  W.  North, 
the  third  of  this  group  of  ideal  Nature  painters.  His 
picture  in  the  Tate  Gallery,  "The  Winter  Sun,"  is  an  ex- 
quisite example  of  his  subtle  and  indefinite  Nature-studies 
— scenes  that  are  made  beautiful  with  loving  and  minute 
rendering. 

Professor  von  Herkomer  has  called  J.  W.  North  "  the 
originator  of  the  germ  of  the  Walker  school."  This  seems 
to  be  overstating  the  truth.  Walker  and  North  were 
much  together,  and  they  went  to  Algiers,  at  the  time 
Walker's  health  first  failed.  Professor  Herkomer  considers 
that  Walker's  colour  "took  a  deeper  and  richer  glow" 
as  the  result  of  this  companionship.  It  is  difficult  to 
estimate  the  justice  of  such  a  statement.  That  some 
connection  existed  between  the  work  of  the  two  painters 
can  be  seen  from  their  pictures ;  indeed,  the  unity  of  their 
aims  would  naturally  tend  to  increase  the  influence  of 
friendship. 

And  here  a  thought  arises  of  exceeding  interest. 
North  was  the  chosen  companion  of  Richard  Jefferies. 
In  his  notice  of  the  prose-poet's  last  illness  he  writes :  "  I 
have  been  trying  by  a  different  art  for  thirty  years  to 
convey  an  idea  to  others  of  some  such  subjects  (he  has 
been  speaking  of  the  Nature  writings  of  his  friend),  and 
I  feel  with  shame  that  in  the  work  of  half  a  year  I  do 
not  get  so  near  the  heart  and  truth  of  Nature  as  he  in 
one  paragraph." 

154 


THE    TATE    GALLERY 

May  it  not  be  that  Richard  Jefferies,  the  intimate 
lover  of  all  the  manifold  beauties  he  found  around  him, 
was  linked  in  one  chain  with  these  painters  of  poetic 
landscape  ?  The  cry  of  his  Heart  vibrates  in  their  work ; 
they  also  could  have  written : — 

"  I  was  sensitive  to  all  things,  to  the  earth  under, 
and  the  star-hollow  round  about ;  to  the  least  blade  of 
grass,  to  the  largest  oak.  They  seemed  like  exterior 
nerves  and  veins  for  the  conveyance  of  feeling  to  me. 
Sometimes  a  very  ecstasy  of  exquisite  enjoyment  of  the 
entire  visible  universe  filled  me."  —  Richard  Jefferies: 
The  Story  of  My  Heart. 


'55 


CHAPTER  XIII 

A   PAINTER  OF   PURE   LANDSCAPE:    CECIL 
GORDON   LAWSON   (i 851-1882) 


CHAPTER  XIII 


A   PAINTER   OF   PURE   LANDSCAPE:    CECIL 
GORDON  LAWSON   (1851-1882) 


NE  idea  dominates  our  thought  as  we 
gaze  upon  Cecil  Lawson's  "August 
Moon " — the  picture  is  big  in  feeling. 
We  are  not  sure  of  many  facts  about  the 
work,  but  of  this  we  are  certain,  the  land- 
scape has  been  grasped  as  a  whole,  it 
has  the  true  unity  of  pictorial  form. 

The  conception  gives  us  something  more  than  the  out- 
ward semblance  of  the  scene ;  here  the  real  and  the  ideal 
intermingle.  The  foreground,  the  middle  distance,  and 
the  background  blend  with  perfect  unison  ;  our  eye  is 
carried  into  unmeasured  distance,  where  a  mystery  of  im- 
pression lingers.  In  the  forefront  of  the  scene  the  wonder- 
fully realised  firs  gain  grandeur  from  the  space  behind. 
A  grace  of  composition  marks  the  work.  We  gaze  upon 
the  clear  cold  colour  of  illumined  night.  The  moon- 
beams gleam  upon  the  water  with  phosphorescent  silver, 
the  rays  catch  with  light  the  trunks  of  the  trees.  The 
landscape  breathes  the  stillness  of  summer  night.  We  see 
a  stretch  of  marshy  woods — 

...  "A  glimmering  land. 
With  shadow  streaks  of  rain, 
Lit  with  a  low  large  moon." 

•59 


PICTURES    IN 

Yet,  granting  in  full  the  power  of  the  scene,  we  are 
conscious  of  some  want,  one  last  touch  that  would  infuse 
with  poetic  inspiration  the  genius  of  the  realisation. 

Cecil  Lawson  composed  his  scenes  grandly,  his  techni- 
cal ability  was  great.  In  his  rendering  of  trees  he  stands 
alone  amongst  English  landscapists,  while  his  pictures  are 
always  true  in  tone.  But  we  are  conscious  he  never  com- 
pletely realised  the  deepest  inspiration  of  his  own  thought. 
This  was  Cecil  Lawson's  limitation,  but  it  was  also  his 
power.  We  respond  to  the  greatness  of  his  aspiration, 
even  while  we  feel  that  the  goal  was  never  completely 
gained.  Nor  must  it  be  forgotten,  in  the  appraisement  of 
his  work,  that  the  young  landscape  painter  died  when  he 
was  thirty-three.  Had  his  great  natural  power  mellowed 
to  maturer  growth,  it  seems  certain  his  expression  would 
have  gained  that  depth  of  fuller  meaning,  the  one  thing 
it  lacks. 

Cecil  Lawson  was  born  into  an  atmosphere  of  art.  His 
father  was  a  portrait  -  painter  of  great  technical  ability, 
while  his  mother  was  a  woman  of  deep  culture.  The 
children  of  this  union  all  shared  the  artistic  spirit.  One 
brother  was  an  organist,  while  the  second  was  an  illus- 
trator. A  true  artist  at  heart,  Wilfred  laboured  at  black 
and  white  that  Cecil,  eight  years  his  junior,  might  be  able 
to  paint  the  landscapes  he  loved.  Mr.  Haseltine  Owen 
has  drawn  a  charming  picture  of  their  home  in  Chelsea, 
in  The  Magazine  of  Art  for  1894.  Cecil  Lawson  seems 
to  have  been  gifted  with  something  of  the  versatile  fascina- 
tion   of  Gabriel    Rossetti.      He    was    a    rare    mimic,    and 

possessed  a  fund   of  abounding  humour.     Often  he  would 

160 


THE    TATE   GALLERY 

recite  passages  of  prose  or  verse,  while  at  all  times  he 
delighted  to  speak  of  the  scenes  that  were  visioned  in  his 
imagination. 

The  technicalities  of  his  art  were  learnt  from  his  father, 
who  trained  both  his  artist  sons  with  extreme  care  and 
considerable  severity.  Cecil  Lawson  owed  much  to  the 
sympathy  of  his  brother  Wilfred.  He  worked  with  him 
for  some  time  at  black  and  white  illustrations  for  the 
magazines.  But  while  still  a  boy  he  decided  to  devote 
his  power  to  landscape  work,  and  throughout  this  period 
of  drudgery,  he  never  ceased  to  dream  and  talk  of  the 
subjects  for  his  Nature  pictures. 

His  love  of  Nature  was  different  from  the  intimate  and 
idyllic  passion  that  inspired  Fred  Walker,  Mason,  or 
J.  W.  North.  Nature  scenes  were  rather  opportunities 
for  the  manifestation  of  his  genius  than  dreams  of  idyllic 
beauty,  summoning  him  and  impelling  him  to  find  ex- 
pression. 

Cecil  Lawson  was  more  of  a  painter  than  a  poet.  He 
saw  Nature  with  the  large  vision  of  the  pure  artist,  not 
with  the  inner  passion  of  the  artist  who  is  also  an  idealist. 
His  greatest  power  arose  from  his  knowledge  of  the  in- 
tensity of  light,  and  his  understanding  of  its  effect  upon 
colour.  It  is  this  power  which  gives  a  sublimity  to  his 
trees.  Almost  alone  among  English  painters  he  realises 
each  tree  as  an  object  surrounded  by  light.  His  pictures 
are  always  true  in  tone,  while  his  subtle  gradations  of 
colour  have  the  reality  of  life. 

It  was  in  the  colour  of  a  landscape  that  Cecil  Lawson 
found   his   inspiration.      "The   August    Moon"   was   sug- 

i6i  X 


PICTURES    IN 

gested  by  an  evening  scene  at  Blackdown,  in  Surrey,  when 
he  noticed  a  lovely  and  unusual  effect  caused  by  the 
moon's  light  playing  upon  water.  Mr.  Haseltine  Owen 
was  with  the  painter  at  the  time.  He  thus  describes  the 
incident  in  the  article  I  have  already  quoted: — "We  drove 
together  to  see  the  moon  rise  over  Blackdown.  By  the 
time  we  reached  the  place  the  moon  was  high  in  the 
heavens.  I  remember  Lawson  enlarging  on  the  colour 
there  was  always  in  a  landscape  in  such  moonlight.  He 
said  that  no  great  painter  had  yet  fully  grasped  this  truth, 
but  that  he  intended  to  attempt  to  show  it." 

"The  August  Moon"  was  painted  in  1880.  Before 
this  time  many  landscapes  had  been  completed.  A  first 
large  picture,  a  view  of  "  Cheyne  Walk,  Chelsea,"  was  ex- 
hibited at  the  Academy  in  1870.  The  work  was  at  once 
noticed  for  its  power  and  its  distinctive  interpretation  of 
Nature.  Year  by  year  fresh  landscapes  followed.  Probably 
the  finest  are  "A  Pastoral,"  a  scene  taken  from  the  sylvan 
vale  of  the  Vyrnwy,  Meifod,  N.  Wales ;  "  The  Minister's 
Garden,"  which  was  painted  as  a  tribute  to  the  memory 
of  Oliver  Goldsmith ;  "  The  Hop  Gardens  of  England," 
and  "The  August  Moon."  This  last  work  was  chosen 
by  the  painter  to  represent  him  in  British  art,  and  upon 
his  death,  his  widow  gave  the  picture  to  the  nation.  His 
last  landscapes  were  "  The  Wet  Moon,  Old  Battersea,"  and 
"The  Storm  Cloud,  West  Lynn,  North  Devon."  Both 
pictures  were  exhibited  at  the  Grosvenor  Gallery  in  1882, 
the  year  in  which  he  died. 

Cecil  Lawson  is  one  of  the  few  British  artists  who 
have  painted  landscape  solely  for  its  own  sake.     Among  his 

162 


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THE    TATE    GALLERY 

many  Nature  scenes  only  one,  "The  Voice  of  the  Cuckoo," 
gains  any  interest  from  the  introduction  of  figures.  He 
was  the  genius  of  a  fresh  impulse  in  Nature  painting, 
felt  during  the  second  half  of  last  century,  which  had 
for  its  motive  the  desire  to  liberate  a  scene  from  the 
burden  of  narrative.  Landscape  art  was  to  be  freed  from 
an  intellectual  motive,  and  the  sole  object  of  the  work  was 
to  be  the  rendering  of  the  scene. 

Cecil  Lawson  was  not  the  only  artist  who  answered 
this  new  call  of  Nature.  Mark  Fisher,  Alfred  Parsons, 
Edwin  Edwards,  as  well  as  others,  devoted  their  power 
to  pure  landscape,  their  central  purpose  being  to  repre- 
sent their  scenes  without  the  interest  of  super-added 
incidents. 

Both  Alfred  Parsons  and  Edwin  Edwards  have  pictures 
at  Millbank.  "When  Nature  painted  all  things  gay,"  by 
the  former  artist,  is  a  glad  spring  scene,  beautiful  with  lush 
green  grass  and  a  wealth  of  blossom.  The  landscape  by 
Edwin  Edwards  is  a  pseudo-Whistleresque  impression  of 
the  Thames — if  such  a  solecism  may  be  used — taken  from 
a  wharf  near  Waterloo  Bridge, 

There  is  no  bond  between  these  artists  and  Cecil 
Lawson,  except  that,  like  him,  they  have  painted  land- 
scape for  landscape's  sake.  He  remains  alone  among 
British  landscapists,  sundered  from  them  by  the  greatness 
of  his  aim — "  the  bigness  "  of  his  view  of  Nature. 


'63 


CHAPTER  XIV 

THE  PAINTERS  OF  THE  SEA:  HENRY  MOORE 
(1831-1895);  JOHN  BRETT  (1831-1902) ;  JAMES 
CLARKE  HOOK  (Born  1819);  C.NAPIER  HEMY 
(Born  1841);  COLIN  HUNTER  (Born  1841) 


CHAPTER  XIV 

THE  PAINTERS  OF  THE  SEA:  HENRY  MOORE  (1831- 
1895);  JOHN  BRETT  (1831-1902);  JAMES  CLARKE 
HOOK  (Born  1819);  C.  NAPIER  HEMY  (Born  1841) 
COLIN   HUNTER   (Born    1841) 


HE  temperament  of  Henry  Moore  was  akin 
to  that  of  his  younger  brother  Albert.  A 
kindred  artistic  fire  impelled  them  both ; 
each  possessed  a  subtle  gift  of  seizing 
the  spirit  rather  than  the  form  of  art, 
while  each  had  a  rare  intensity  of  aim 
united  with  this  innate  perception.  And  the  secret  of  their 
strength  rested  in  this  dual  heritage.  One  brother  found 
his  Utopia  in  the  ideal  beauty  of  Greek  art,  while  the 
lodestone  that  allured  the  other  was  the  perpetual  mystery 
of  the  sea. 

The  art  of  both  Henry  and  Albert  Moore  was  objective 
in  its  aim.  The  strength  of  their  temperament  enabled 
them  to  be  completely  occupied  with  the  truthful  rendering 
of  their  subjects.  They  were  both  recorders  of  what  they 
felt  to  be  the  eternal  principles  in  art,  always  they  avoided 
any  transitory  or  conventional  ideals.  Had  their  artistic 
instinct  been  less  vital  this  might  have  resulted  in  cold- 
ness and  want  of  life.     But,  as  I  have  tried  to  make  clear, 

167 


PICTURES    IN 

in  their  case  restraint  was  married  to  beauty ;  thus  they 
give  us  an  impersonal,  and  yet  a  living  art,  eternally 
true :  one  that  belongs  to  no  special  race  and  to  no  special 
time. 

If  we  remember  these  things,  it  is  not  difficult  to 
realise  why  the  seascapes  of  Henry  Moore  stand  alone 
among  marine  paintings.  Mr.  Brett  has  given  us  the 
accurate  and  perfect  form  of  the  sea,  with  every  wave 
carefully  detailed  and  every  effect  of  light  mathematically 
noted ;  Colin  Hunter  and  C.  Napier  Hemy  both  give  us 
impressive  incidents  of  marine  life,  always  dramatically 
conceived  and  boldly  rendered ;  Mr.  J.  C.  Hook  gives  us 
the  sea  of  picturesque  tradition ;  but  from  Henry  Moore 
we  get  the  sea  itself.  His  pictures  are  filled  with  the 
mystery  and  the  terror  of  the  deep.  He  sees  the  sea 
which  calls  and  calls  us  English  with  the  power  of  its 
unchanging  change. 

For  a  moment  let  us  compare  the  seascapes  of  these 
painters.  Mr.  Colin  Hunter's  "Their  Only  Harvest"  and 
Mr.  Hemy's  "Pilchards"  are  both  scenes  of  vigorous 
movement.  The  figures  are  veritably  working,  and  the 
individual  action  of  each  one  is  felt.  Everywhere  there 
is  the  animation  of  motion.  But  we  think  of  the  incident 
rather  than  of  the  sea.  The  seascape  backgrounds  are 
perfectly  harmonious,  every  detail  is  faithfully  painted ; — 
the  bright  scales  of  the  massed  pilchards  gleam  in  the 
early  light  of  sunrise ;  the  reflection  of  the  brooding  yellow 
sky  upon  the  water  in  "Their  Only  Harvest"  is  finely 
rendered.  Both  pictures  are  literal  transcripts  of  the 
scenes    they   represent.      They    are    virile    and    true,    fine 

i68 


THE    TATE    GALLERY 

records  of  the  artist's  clear  sight;  what  they  miss  is  the 
insight  of  inspiration. 

Mr.  Hook  has  been  called  "The  Kingsley  of  painting," 
and  perhaps  no  other  figure  so  clearly  mirrors  this  veteran 
and  popular  painter.  "  Home  with  the  Tide,"  "  Young 
Dreams,"  and  "The  Seaweed  Raker,"  his  three  marine 
paintings  at  Millbank,  are  all  variations  of  the  same  sub- 
ject. The  pictures  are  vivid  with  local  colour,  and  the 
canvases  are  crowded  with  incident.  Picturesque  figures 
stand  upon  the  shore,  or  are  gracefully  posed  upon  the 
brown  rocks  and  gay  green  cliffs.  Everything  is  very 
bright  and  very  pleasing ;  the  sun  is  always  shining, 
and  the  sea  breeze  is  blowing.  The  pictures  are  crisp 
and  fresh,  and  truly  English,  but  they  are  untouched  with 
the  romance  of  the  sea. 

The  work  of  John  Brett  is  more  intimately  united  with 
that  of  Henry  Moore.  Both  painters  depict  the  sea  for 
its  own  sake,  and  not  as  a  setting  for  marine  incidents. 

Brett  had  the  pre- Raphael ite  form  without  the  true 
ideal  of  the  pre-Raphaelite  spirit.  Of  his  first  picture, 
"The  Stone  Breaker,"  Mr.  Ruskin  wrote:  "In  some 
points  of  precision  his  work  goes  beyond  anything  the 
pre-Raphaelites  have  done  yet."  In  his  seascapes  the  de- 
tailed care  in  handling  and  perfect  finish  are  wonderful, 
indeed  his  effects  are  mathematical  in  their  absolute  ac- 
curacy. His  mode  of  painting  may  be  compared  in  many 
ways  with  that  of  John  F.  Lewis.  The  clearness  of  his 
atmosphere,  the  brilliancy  of  his  light,  his  wide  effects  of 
sea  and  sky,  are  unexaggerated  and  exactly  true. 

In   "  Britannia's    Realm "   we    gaze   down   upon   a  vast 

169  Y 


PICTURES    IN 

stretch  of  azure  sea,  flecked  with  innumerable  waves  and 
wavelets,  shimmering  into  the  distance,  where  fishing- 
boats  and  tiny  vessels  are  dotted.  The  clear  penetrating 
sunlight  of  summer  fills  the  canvas. 

The  sureness  of  perfect  mastery  speaks  in  the  work. 
And  yet,  in  spite  of  the  grace,  the  skill,  and  the  minute 
carefulness,  the  picture  misses  something.  It  is  without 
mystery — that  lovely  strangeness  which  transforms  a  fine 
painting  into  an  inspiration  of  art. 

And  it  is  just  this  mysterious  suggestion  that  Henry 
Moore  gives  us.  He  grasped  the  full  meaning  of  the 
sea:  he  did  not  paint  pictures  so  much  as  translate 
truths. 

It  would  be  superfluous  to  give  in  detail  the  history  of 
Henry  Moore's  parentage.  It  will  be  remembered  that  his 
artist  gift  came  from  both  his  father  and  his  mother,  while 
three  of  his  brothers  were  painters.  It  was  from  his  father 
he  received  his  early  training;  drawing  was  an  instinct, 
and  he  began  to  sketch  as  soon  as  he  could  hold  a  pencil. 
His  elder  brother  John  Collingwood  had  already  gained 
notice  for  his  Roman  landscapes,  and  for  some  time  Henry 
worked  with  him.  For  a  short  period  he  attended  York 
School  of  Art,  but  he  gained  little  from  the  rigid  training. 
In  1852  he  came  to  London,  and  was  admitted  to  the 
Academy  schools.  The  following  spring  he  had  two 
Scotch  landscapes,  "  Glen  Clunie "  and  "  Castle  Town  of 
Braemar,"  in  the  Academy  Exhibition. 

These  were  preparatory  years,  before  he  had  found  his 
true  inspiration.  He  even  seems  to  have  wandered  into 
the  by-paths  of  pre-Raphaelism.      Mr.  Spielmann,  in   his 

170 


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THE    TATE    GALLERY 

article  upon  the  painter  in  The  Magazine  of  Art  for  1895, 
mentions  a  cottage  interior  "painted  absolutely  in  the 
pre- Raphael ite  manner."  In  1858  his  first  important  sea- 
scapes, "A  White  Calm"  and  "  Kittiwakes  in  their  Nest," 
were  painted,  and  from  this  time  Henry  Moore  became 
the  interpreter  of  the  sea. 

The  energy  and  determination  of  the  painter  were 
supreme.  He  studied  every  aspect  of  wave  form  and 
wave  colour,  each  subtle  effect  of  light  and  atmosphere 
was  carefully  noted,  there  was  no  change  of  weather  he 
did  not  know.  Raging  storms  were  defied,  fatigue  was 
forgotten,  and  once  a  severe  illness  of  rheumatism  was 
contracted  through  his  devotion. 

Certain  French  critics  objected  that  his  seas  were  too 
blue.  "What  do  they  know  of  the  high  seas,"  was  the 
painter's  answer,  "  they,  who  judge  the  sea  only  by  their 
own  flat  sandy  shallows." 

Year  by  year  he  cnlised  continually  on  the  water,  in 
the  Solent,  in  the  Channel,  off  Cherbourg,  Devon,  or  Corn- 
wall, or  on  further  journeys,  to  Nonvay  and  elsewhere. 
In  this  way  he  learnt  to  know  the  sea,  and  it  is  said  that 
more  than  six  hundred  scenes  of  the  sea  were  painted. 
His  pictures  give  us  the  swelling  of  great  waters ;  we  see 
glimmering  masses  of  moving  colour,  we  realise  the  un- 
speakable beauties  of  the  sea. 

What  words  can  picture  these  manifold  scenes,  for  who 
can  describe  the  sea?  Henry  Moore  never  tried  to  make 
pictures,  and  his  seascapes  are  almost  without  incident. 
One  of  the  few  exceptions  is  "The  Launch  of  the  Life- 
Boat,"    now    in    the    Walker    Art    Gallery    of    Liverpool, 

171 


THE   TATE    GALLERY 

perhaps  the  most  popular,  although  certainly  not  the  finest, 
of  his  works. 

"A  White  Calm,"  "Clearness  after  Rain,"  "Calm 
before  a  Storm,"  "Winter  and  Rough  Weather,"  "As 
when  the  Sun  doth  Light  a  Storm,"  "  Shine  and  Shower," 
"A  Breezy  Day  in  Channel,"  "A  Storm  Brewing,"  such 
are  the  subjects  he  painted.  The  very  titles  seem  to  tell 
the  story  of  the  sea. 

In  the  Diploma  Gallery  at  Burlington  House,  Henry 
Moore  is  represented  by  "  A  Summer  Breeze  in  the 
Channel,"  a  pure  seascape  of  infinite  charm,  full  of  light 
and  colour. 

"  Catspaws  off  the  Land,"  his  picture  in  the  Tate  Gallery, 
was  painted  in  1885.  The  scene  depicted  is  off  the  South 
coast,  probably  the  Isle  of  Wight.  White  "catspaws"  of 
wind  ripple  the  surface  of  the  water.  A  rocky  hill-coast 
margins  the  sea,  whose  depths  of  luminous  blue  reflect  the 
pale  yellow  of  the  clouds,  and  the  tawny  sails  of  two 
fishing  smacks.  The  perfect  quietness  of  the  picture  is  its 
charm.  Extreme  reserve  is  its  dominant  character.  We 
gaze  upon  it,  and  its  silent  truth  steals  into  our  spirit. 


172 


CHAPTER  XV 

TWO  PAINTERS  OF  ANIMALS:  BRITON  RIVIERE 
(Born  1840);   H.  W.  B.  DAVIS  (Born  1833) 


V 


CHAPTER   XV 


TWO   PAINTERS  OF  ANIMALS:     BRITON   RIVIERE 
(Born    1840);    H.   W.    B.    DAVIS   (Born    1833) 


E  have  a  sympathy  with  the  lower  animals 
which  is  peculiarly  our  own,"  opined  Mr. 
Ruskin  in  his  Oxford  Lectures  on  Art. 
Certainly  British  painters  have  always 
shown  a  special  interest  in  animal  paint- 
ing. The  names  of  John  Wyke,  James 
Seymour,  John  Wootton,  George  Stubbs,  Gainsborough, 
Morland,  James  Ward  and  Landseer  at  once  suggest  them- 
selves as  painters  who  have  devoted  their  art,  either  par- 
tially or  entirely,  to  delineating  animal  life.  With  Sir 
Edwin  Landseer  this  branch  of  painting  attained  a  popu- 
larity almost  unprecedented.  His  humanised  quadrupeds 
spoke  with  direct  appeal  to  the  heart  of  the  people,  his 
faults  as  an  artist  were  unheeded,  and  he  became  the 
favourite  painter  of  England. 

This  mantle  of  esteem  has  descended  in  a  great  measure 
upon  Mr.  Briton  Riviere.  His  animals,  it  is  true,  have 
very  little  in  common  with  those  of  his  predecessor.  He 
never  falls  into  Landseer's  error  of  making  his  brutes 
masquerade  as  human  beings.  "  His  animals  give  their 
minds  to  the  business  in  hand.     They  never  pose  or  think 

«75 


PICTURES    IN 

of  themselves,"  is  the  estimate  of  his  biographer  Sir  Walter 
Armstrong.  The  human  appeal  of  his  pictures  is  gained 
by  the  mise  en  scene  of  the  work.  With  a  few  note- 
worthy exceptions,  his  animals  are  depicted  in  intimate 
relations  with  man  ;  sometimes  they  are  shown  in  a  scene 
of  sentiment,  at  others  they  are  the  actors  in  incidents  of 
humorous  intention,  while  perhaps  most  frequently  we 
meet  them  in  situations  of  marked  dramatic  action.  In 
every  scene  the  interest  is  well  defined,  while  the  appeal 
made  to  the  imagination  is  simple  and  direct.  The  animals 
are  one  part  of  the  stage  apparatus,  they  always  fulfil  their 
parts  fittingly ;  indeed,  the  great  merit  of  the  pictures  is 
the  unfailing  comprehension  of  animal  nature  which  they 
manifest. 

Briton  Riviere  belongs  to  a  family  of  artists.  His 
father  was  a  well-known  teacher  of  drawing  at  Cheltenham, 
and  aftewards  at  Oxford,  his  grandfather  was  a  gold 
medallist  of  the  Royal  Academy  schools,  while  his  uncle, 
H.  P.  Riviere,  was  a  water-colour  painter  of  fair  talent. 
It  is  not,  therefore,  surprising  to  find  that  Briton  Riviere 
showed  remarkable  precocity  in  art.  He  was  drawing 
animals  at  the  Zoo  when  he  was  seven,  and  Sir  Walter 
Armstrong  mentions  with  praise  a  drawing  of  a  wolf 
made  at  that  time.  His  first  pictures  were  exhibited  at  the 
British  Institution  when  he  was  only  eleven,  while  six 
years  later  he  had  three  pictures  at  the  Academy  :  "  Sheep 
on  the  Cotswolds,"  "  Tired  Out,"  and  "  Monkey  and 
Grapes." 

A  brief  period  of  hesitance  followed  this  brilliant  pre- 
lude.     For  a  time  the  young  painter  wavered  in  his  alle- 

176 


THE  TATE    GALLERY 

giance  to  animal  work.  He  was  strongly  attracted  by  the 
methods  of  the  pre-Raphaelites,  and  began  a  series  of 
poetic  pictures  which  were  all  doomed  as  failures.  While 
he  was  still  in  the  throes  of  artistic  uncertainty  he  gained 
the  friendship  of  Orchardson  and  Pettie,  and  owing  to 
their  influence,  he  adopted,  to  a  great  extent,  the  technical 
method  of  the  Scotch  school.  It  will  be  remembered  that 
the  main  tendency  of  the  Scottish  painters  was  to  see 
their  subjects  in  detail  ;  roughly  speaking,  their  method 
was  to  build  up  a  picture  stage  by  stage,  both  in  its  colour 
and  in  its  design,  instead  of  grasping  the  conception  in 
its  totality. 

"The  Sleeping  Deerhound "  of  1865  was  the  first 
picture  painted  under  this  new  influence.  From  that  time 
Briton  Riviere  has  pursued  an  unhesitating  course.  Each 
year  anecdotal  pictures  of  animals  have  been  painted, 
and  a  first  unanimous  triumph  was  gained  in  1871,  with 
"Circe  and  her  Swine."  The  subjects  treated  have  been 
manifold  ;  scenes  of  dramatic  or  pathetic  interest  have  been 
most  frequent,  but  there  have  been  many  classical  and 
scriptural  pieces,  and  also  humorous  sketches,  while  the 
finest  pictures  have  been  painted  to  illustrate  some  poetic 
thought. 

In  the  Tate  Gallery  we  can  study  these  varied  expressions 
of  the  painter's  mood.  No  other  artist  is  as  comprehen- 
sively represented,  and  only  his  classical  scenes  are  absent 
from  the  collection. 

"The  Herd  of  Swine"  is  perhaps  the  best  known  of 
the  pictures.  The  scene  is  a  dramatic  version  of  the 
Miracle  of  the   Gadarene   Swine,   which    at   once  explains 

177  z 


PICTURES    IN 

itself.  "  And,  behold,  the  whole  herd  of  swine  ran 
violently  down  a  steep  place  into  the  sea,  and  perished  in 
the  water.     And  they  that  kept  them  fled.' 

The  chief  merit  of  the  picture  is  the  painting  of  the 
swine.  The  terror  of  the  stricken  herd  has  been  seized, 
and  their  wild  rush  of  unthinking  horror  is  given  with 
strength  and  simplicity.  Briton  Riviere  has  studied  the 
form  of  every  animal  he  paints  with  continued  observation, 
and  in  depicting  them  he  rarely  fails. 

Perhaps  this  comprehension  of  brute  nature  is  seen 
most  clearly  in  his  studies  of  animal  humour.  The  best 
instance  is  "An  Anxious  Moment,"  now  at  the  Holloway 
College,  where  an  inimitable  flock  of  geese  are  pictured, 
waddling,  with  frightened  and  yet  pretentious  dignity, 
past  a  time-tattered  hat.  This  same  humour  meets  us 
in  "  The  Blockade  Runner "  of  the  Tate  Gallery.  Here, 
a  grey  and  white  cat  escapes  with  feline  swiftness,  along 
the  coping  of  a  high  wall,  from  the  clutches  of  a  yelping 
terrier,  who  jumps  in  impotent  clumsiness  beneath. 
Three  canine  friends  share  his  disappointment,  and  the 
disappearing  cat  is  followed  by  a  chorus  of  barks  and 
the  glances  of  four  pairs  of  coveting  eyes. 

It  is  in  such  scenes  of  humour,  where  all  interest  is 
centred  in  the  action  of  the  animals,  that  we  realise  Briton 
Riviere's  intimate  knowledge  of  animal  nature. 

"Companions  in  Misfortune,"  and  "Sympathy"  are 
instances  of  the  many  studies  of  sentiment  and  anecdote 
that  have  gained  the  painter  his  wide  popularity.  In  these 
pictures  the  animals  participate  in  human  afiairs,  and 
a  feeling  of  sentiment  is  added  to  the  interest  of  their  brute 

178 


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a:  : 

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THE    TATE    GALLERY 

nature.  Both  pictures  are  illustrations  of  dog  sympathy, 
and  it  is  worth  noting  that  in  each  scene  the  brute  action 
is  made  more  important  than  the  human. 

One  distinctive  merit  of  Briton  Riviere's  work  is  the 
simplicity  with  which  the  scene  is  depicted.  The  composi- 
tion is  not  overburdened  with  detail.  He  tells  his  stories 
with  dramatic  strength,  and  rarely  does  he  leave  his  main 
motif  to  wander  into  side  issues.  This  directness  intensi- 
fies the  interest  of  the  work ;  it  gives  a  unity  of  idea, 
which  at  once  rivets  attention  upon  the  central  action  of 
the  theme. 

I  have  left  one  picture  unnoticed.  "  Beyond  Man's 
Footsteps "  is  the  last  of  Riviere's  works  that  has  been 
added  to  the  National  Collection.  It  is  so  distinct  from 
his  other  studies  that  it  demands  separate  consideration. 
The  scene  shows  us  an  arctic  landscape  of  cold  blue-white 
snow,  illumined  by  the  sinking  sun,  whose  rays  cause  the 
ice-needles  to  scintillate  with  light.  A  white  polar  bear 
stands  upon  the  ice-bound  heights,  and  commands  the  vast 
solitude  of  the  scene. 

This  poetic  realisation  of  a  difficult  theme  was  not 
painted  until  1894.  In  the  power  of  its  rendering,  this 
work  must  be  ranked  with  "The  Persepolis "  of  1878. 
There  is  a  certain  analogy  between  the  two  pictures.  Both 
depict  places  where  brute  life  reigns  apart  from  man  ;  the 
scenes  convey  the  same  sense  of  vastness  and  solitude. 
The  lonely  grandeur  of  "The  Persepolis"  illustrates  the 
lines  of  the  Eastern  singer : — 

"  They  say  the  lion  and  the  lizard  keep 
The  halls  where  Jamished  gloried  and  drank  deep." 

>79 


PICTURES    IN 

In  both  pictures  there  is  tone  and  harmony  of  colour, 
while  the  scenes  are  realised  with  quiet  intensity.  They 
are,   I  think,  the  greatest  of  Briton  Riviere's  work. 

As  an  animal  painter  H.  W.  B.  Davis  has  little  in 
common  with  either  Landseer  or  with  Briton  Riviere.  He 
depicts  his  animals  in  their  natural  environment ;  we  see 
them  in  their  connection  with  nature  and  unrelated  to 
man.  This  averts  the  temptation  to  clothe  them  with 
sentiment,  which  almost  invariably  ensues  when  animals 
are  humanised  or  made  the  actors  upon  a  human  stage. 
An  artistic  advantage  also  arises  from  this  simplicity  of 
conception.  Here  the  picture  depends  for  its  beauty  upon 
the  pictorial  realisation  of  the  scene,  no  anecdotal  incidents 
are  superadded,  which  can  give  the  work  a  fictitious  senti- 
mental charm. 

Mr.  Davis  is  a  lover  of  nature  in  her  quiet  moods. 
His  father  was  a  barrister,  and  a  fact  of  more  moment  in 
his  son's  career,  an  enthusiastic  fisherman.  The  boy  went 
on  many  angling  excursions,  and  in  this  way  he  learnt  to 
observe  quickly,  the  primal  necessity  for  an  animal  painter. 
In  1852  Mr.  Davis  entered  the  Academy  Schools.  His 
initial  intention  was  to  be  a  sculptor,  and  for  some  years 
he  worked  at  modelling,  but  his  love  of  Nature  drove  him 
from  the  studio  into  the  fields. 

Mr.  Davis  is  both  an  animal  painter  and  a  landscape 
painter,  and  in  some  of  his  pictures  he  makes  the  land- 
scape his  prime  motive,  the  animals  being  merely  incidents 
of  the  scene.  "After  Sunset,"  a  rustic  vista  of  meadows, 
stream  and  cattle,  is  an  example.     But  these  pastoral  scenes 

180 


o 
o 

u, 

h  - 

O  I 

h  S 

o  *! 

2  » 

2  ■ 

h 

u 


■si 


THE    TATE    GALLERY 

are  not  the  painter's  best  work.  His  pictures  gain  their 
interest  from  his  picturesque  groups  of  cattle,  from  his 
horses,  and  from  his  dogs. 

This  power  of  depicting  animal  life  will  at  once  be 
seen  in  his  pictures  in  the  Tate  Gallery ;  perhaps  it  is 
most  visible  in  "  Mother  and  Son,"  a  charming  study  of 
a  mare  and  foal.  But  in  each  picture  the  animals  are 
well  rendered. 

"Returning  to  the  Fold"  was  painted  in  1880.  It  is 
a  rural  study  of  a  shepherd  and  his  flock.  The  sheep  are 
passing  along  a  hill-side,  and  as  they  go  they  graze  upon 
the  thick,  coarse  grass.  It  is  the  hour  of  sunset,  and  the 
colour-scheme  is  bright  with  local  colour.  The  sheep  are 
real  sheep,  true  to  Nature,  and  the  same  may  be  said  of 
the  dogs. 

In  the  companion  picture,  "  Approaching  Night,"  we  see 
a  shepherd  guarding  his  flock  on  a  hill-side  meadow, 
bordering  upon  a  road.  In  the  darkened  landscape  there 
is  harmony  of  light  and  colour.  The  details  are  forgotten 
in  the  impression  of  the  scene. 


181 


CHAPTER  XVI 
MODERN  GENRE   AND  HISTORICAL  PAINTERS 


CHAPTER  XVI 


MODERN   GENRE  AND  HISTORICAL  PAINTERS 


OVE  of  anecdote  has  always  been  a 
central  feature  in  British  painting.  A 
mere  preliminary  glance  at  the  pictures 
on  the  walls  of  the  Tate  Gallery  con- 
firms this  statement.  Anecdotal  pictures, 
infused    with     an    historical,    a    pathetic. 


or  a  humorous  interest  form  at  least  two-thirds  of  the 
National  Collection.  Such  pictures  continue  in  an  un- 
broken succession  from  the  paintings  of  Sir  David  Wilkie 
to  the  dainty  romantic  scenes  of  Mr.  Marcus  Stone. 

A  story  need  not,  however,  necessarily  injure  a  picture. 
This  is  proved  by  Frank  Bramley's  "  Hopeless  Dawn," 
by  La  Thangue's  "  Man  with  the  Scythe,"  and  by  many 
genre  studies.  In  both  these  pictures  we  have  the  most 
self-evident  story,  but  the  stories  are  told  through  the 
medium  of  delightful  colour  and  a  technique  which  is  full 
of  charm.  In  these  cases  one  feels  that  the  stories  have 
powerfully  touched  the  painters'  minds ;  and  they  have 
passed  them  on  to  us  as  something  more  than  mere 
incidents.  Thus,  we  are  driven  back  to  the  knowledge 
that  it  is  not  the  subject  which  matters  but  the  sentiment 

185  2  A 


PICTURES    IN 

which  rests  behind,  and   the   manner   in   which   the  theme 
is  rendered. 

The  danger  of  the  anecdotal  tendency  is  to  exalt  the 
story  at  the  sacrifice  of  the  paint.  By  this  I  mean  that 
the  artist  is  apt  to  think  less  about  the  beauty  and  quality 
of  his  colour,  and  the  pictorial  charm  of  his  picture  than 
of  the  direct  appeal  made  to  the  sympathy  of  the  gazer 
by  the  obvious  meaning  of  his  subject. 

The  early  Victorian  tradition  of  historical  and  domestic 
genre  has  been  maintained  by  Frith,  Egg,  Thomas  Faed, 
Horsley,  Marcus  Stone,  Dendy  Sadler,  Joseph  Clark, 
F.  D.  Millet,  Yeames,  and  many  others. 

The  pictures  of  these  painters  may  be  studied  at  Mill- 
bank.  In  addition  to  "The  Derby  Day"  W.  P.  Frith 
gives  a  new  and  very  charming  rendering  of  "  Uncle  Toby 
and  the  Widow  Wadman."  "  The  Silken  Gown,"  and 
"  Faults  on  both  Sides,"  the  pictures  of  Thomas  Faed,  are 
the  true  artistic  offspring  of  Mulready,  Webster,  and  William 
Collins ;  and  the  same,  with  a  certain  reservation,  may  be 
said  of  "The  Pride  of  the  Village,"  by  J.  C.  Horsley, 
and  of  Joseph  Clark's  "  Mother's  Darling."  Dendy  Sadler 
and  F.  D.  Millet  re-echo  the  humour  of  Thomas  Good  in 
their  pictures,  "Thursday,"  "A  Good  Story,"  and  "Be- 
tween Two  Fires."  "  Beatrix  Knighting  Esmond "  and 
"The  Scene  from  Le  Diable  Boiteux,"  the  works  of 
Augustus  Egg,  the  "  Amy  Robsart "  of  W.  F.  Yeames, 
and  Marcus  Stone's  " II  y  en  a  toujours  un  autre" 
each  find  their  prototype  among  the  work  of  the  early 
painters.  They  carry  mingled  memories  of  Wilkie,  Leslie, 
M.  E.  Ward,  and  G.  S.  Newton. 

i86 


THE    TATE    GALLERY 

It  is  not  possible  to  note  the  personality  which 
separates  these  painters,  who  may  be  said  to  bridge  the 
gulf  between  the  old  and  the  new  ideals  of  anecdotal 
painting. 

The  rise  of  the  Scotch  School  marks  a  fresh  stage  in 
British  genre  painting.  To  some  extent  at  any  rate 
these  painters  rose  above  the  tyranny  of  their  subject ; 
they  still  painted  pictures  of  historical  and  domestic  inci- 
dent, but  the  story  was  chosen  for  its  colour  possibilities. 
To  gain  a  rich  resonance  of  tone  was  the  distinctive  pur- 
pose of  these  painters.  They  did  not  seek  the  natural 
tints  of  nature  as  they  are  revealed  by  light.  Their  method 
was  frankly  a  convention  ;  their  aim  was  to  carry  colour 
into  everything,  and  produce  a  glowing  harmony  by  the 
skilful  interweaving  of  their  tints.  The  inspirer  of  the 
movement  was  Walter  Scott  Lauder,  a  teacher  of  remark- 
able strength,  who  became  the  head  of  the  Trustees' 
Academy  at  Edinburgh  in  1850.  Lauder  had  studied  in 
Italy,  and  his  principles  of  colour  were  an  efifort  to  repro- 
duce the  warm  glow  of  the  Venetian  masters. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  Orchardson  and  Pettie,  as 
well  as  Peter  Graham  and  MacWhirter,  were  among  his 
pupils.  Of  the  two  friends  Mr.  Orchardson  is  the  greater 
artist.  His  personality  is  more  distinctive  and  his  ex- 
pression more  complete,  and  for  this  reason  his  work  is 
less  representative  of  the  modern  anecdotal  picture. 

When  we  look  at  his  paintings  we  realise  again  that 
the  subject  of  a  picture  is  secondary  to  its  manner  of 
realisation.  Like  Mr.  George  Moore,  we  may  wish  that 
the  subjects   of  the   pictures  were   different,   but,   after  all, 

187 


PICTURES    IN 

the  main  thing  is  the  beauty  of  their  colour,  with  its 
delicate  gradations  and  masses  of  light  tones.  It  is  un- 
fortunate we  do  not  see  Mr.  Orchardson's  finest  work 
in  the  National  Collection,  "  Napoleon  on  board  the 
Bellerophonr  "  Her  First  Dance,"  "The  First  Cloud,''  and 
"  Her  Mother's  Voice,"  all  belong  to  the  group  of  his 
popular  later  pictures.  His  genius  is  greatest  in  his 
portraits  and  in  simple  subjects  with  few  figures,  where 
all  his  power  is  centred  in  the  luminous  transparency  of 
his  colour.  His  diploma  picture,  at  Burlington  House, 
"  On  the  North  Foreland,"  is  a  study  of  rare  charm  of 
colour.  Probably  his  two  masterpieces — and  I  use  this 
word  fully  realising  its  significance  —  are  "Conditional 
Neutrality "  and  "  Master  Baby,"  the  portraits  of  his  son 
and  of  his  wife.  Of  the  former  picture  Sir  Walter  Arm- 
strong writes,  "  I  suspect  that  a  century  hence  it  will  be 
looked  upon  as  one  of  the  treasures  of  the  English 
School." 

"  Pettie  played  the  trumpet  to  his  companion's  flageolet." 
This  remark,  made  by  Sir  Walter  Armstrong  in  his 
admirable  monograph  upon  Orchardson,  perfectly  expresses 
the  difference  which  severed  the  work  of  the  two  friends. 

John  Pettie  was  a  strong  painter,  though  not  over- 
burdened with  emotion.  His  pictures  are  dramatic, 
almost  noisy,  in  their  intention,  with  bold  and  virile  design, 
and  with  high  local  colour.  The  power  of  his  work 
arises  from  his  ability  to  suggest  movement,  and  from 
the  quality  of  his  colour.  He  was  one  of  the  first  painters 
to  free  the  historic  scene  from  the  multiplicity  of  detail, 
thought    necessary     in     traditional     composition.      A     fine 

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THE    TATE    GALLERY 

instance  of  this  simplicity  of  conception  is  his  well-known 
"  Ho !  Ho  I  Old  Noll ! "  where  three  figures  stand  in  an 
empty  space  against  a  white  wall. 

Pettie's  limitations  were  defined  with  almost  equal 
strength.  We  miss  the  presence  of  any  idea  which 
suggests  the  inward  thought  that  has  inspired  his  subject. 
There  is  no  poetic  quality,  all  is  vigour,  action,  and  clever 
execution,  without  the  slightest  trace  of  introspection. 
A  second  limitation  arose  from  his  special  method  of 
colour,  for  in  striving  to  get  strong  local  colour  into  the 
minutiae  of  his  scenes,  he  often  failed  to  realise  the  power 
of  light.  Mr.  Ruskin  in  his  Academy  Notes  for  1875 
makes  this  comment  upon  his  work :  "Mr.  Pettie,  a 
man  of  real  feeling  and  dramatic  power,  is  ruining  himself 
by  shallow  notions  of  chiaroscuro." 

Pettie's  life  does  not  offer  many  incidents  of  special 
interest.  He  was  the  son  of  an  Edinburgh  tradesman  in 
good  circumstances.  As  a  boy,  his  facility  in  drawing 
was  remarkable,  and  he  made  innumerable  clever  sketches 
of  all  his  friends.  His  mother  went  to  James  Drummond 
to  consult  him  with  regard  to  her  son's  future.  At  first 
the  Scottish  painter  advised  trade.  He  then  examined 
some  of  the  lad's  sketches.  "  Whatever  you  or  I  may 
say  won't  matter  much  ;  the  boy  will  die  an  artist,"  was 
his  verdict. 

Pettie  entered  the  Trustees'  Academy,  where  he  was 
strongly  influenced  by  Robert  Scott  Lauder.  At  nineteen 
his  first  picture,  "The  Prison  Pet,"  was  exhibited  at  the 
Scottish  Academy.  Two  years  later  "The  Armourers" 
gained   admittance   to  the    Royal   Academy,  the  first  of  a 

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PICTURES    IN 

series  of  a  hundred  and  thirty  exhibits.  In  the  following 
year  the  young  Scotchman  gained  some  notice  for  his 
picture,  "What  d'ye  lack,  Madam?"  As  the  result  of 
this  success  he  came  to  London,  where  for  some  years  he 
lived  with  Orchardson  at  37  Fitzroy  Square. 

Pettie  first  secured  the  admiration,  of  the  public  in  1864 
with  "The  Drumhead  Court-Martial."  From  this  time  his 
popularity  never  wavered.  His  pictures  carried  a  memory 
of  the  romances  of  Sir  Walter  Scott ;  their  vigour  spoke 
directly  to  the  heart  of  the  public.  Among  his  best  known 
pictures  are  "Two  Strings  to  her  Bow,"  "The  Traitor," 
"A  State  Secret,"  "The  World  went  very  Well,"  "The 
Chieftain's  Candlesticks,"  and  "  Arrest  for  Witchcraft." 

"The  Vigil"  was  painted  in  1884.  The  illustration 
renders  it  needless  to  write  a  description  of  the  picture. 
It  is  not  the  painter's  most  typical  work,  and  it  is  unfor- 
tunate that  this  is  the  only  composition  by  which  he  is 
represented  in  the  National  Collection.  Such  a  subject 
demands  poetic  thought,  and  this  was  the  very  quality 
Pettie  lacked.  A  finer  instance  of  his  power  may  be  seen 
in  the  Diploma  Gallery  at  Burlington  House.  "  The 
Jacobites "  is  a  strong  character  study ;  it  is  a  scene  cut 
straight  from  a  romance,  wherein  each  figure  plays  his 
part  effectively.  In  this  work  we  realise  the  strength  and 
quality  of  the  painter's  colour,  and  the  subtlety  of  his 
brush-work. 

Considerations  of  space  make  it  impossible  to  continue 
step  by  step  the  record  of  the  anecdotal  painters,  whose 
pictures  may  be  studied  at   Millbank.      The  overpowering 

190 


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a  I 

h 


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THE    TATE    GALLERY 

predominance  of  these  genre  and  historical  compositions 
makes  even  selection  difficult.  All  that  we  can  do  is  to 
glance  at  a  few  of  the  most  characteristic  pictures. 

Broadly  speaking,  the  majority  of  the  modern  anecdotal 
paintings  share  the  tendencies  which  characterise  Pettie's 
work.  They  have  more  hard  facts  and  less  sentiment  than 
the  early  Victorian  genre,  while,  as  a  rule,  they  have 
also  less  humour. 

One  noteworthy  exception  is  "The  Doctor,"  by  Luke 
Fildes.  Here  we  have  the  apotheosis  of  the  old  artistic 
sentiment  reclothed  in  modern  guise.  The  manner  of 
painting  is  the  strong  colour  of  the  daylight  school. 
We  may  look  upon  the  picture  as  the  archetype  of  the  old 
ideal  revivified  in  a  new  form,  wherein  realism  and  senti- 
ment are  equally  balanced. 

Seymour  Lucas,  A.  C.  Gow,  The  Hon.  John  Collier, 
and  P.  H.  Calderon  may  be  roughly  grouped  together  in 
what  has  been  called  "the  matter-of-fact  school."  They 
relate  their  stories  clearly,  and  with  the  exception  of 
Mr.  Calderon's  "  Renunciation,"  their  conceptions  are  ex- 
pressive of  vigour  rather  than  of  sentiment.  They  all  paint 
in  the  old  tradition  that  colour  is  more  important  than 
light.  All  their  art  is  expended  in  rendering  the  external 
aspects  of  their  scenes ;  we  never  gain  a  gleam  of  that 
inner  significance  which  may  have  inspired  their  work. 

Two  painters  who  claim  a  more  distinctive  notice 
are  Professor  Herkomer  and  Frank  Holl.  They  both 
belong  to  the  great  portrait-painters  of  England.  Holl's 
massive  style  of  brush-work  and  vigorous  system  of  light- 
ing give   his   work   extreme    strength.      His   portraits    are 

191 


THE    TATE    GALLERY 

powerful  revelations  of  his  sitters.  In  the  Tate  Gallery  we 
have  two  exquisite  studies  from  his  hand  "  Hush "  and 
"  Hushed."  They  are  the  most  beautiful  of  stor}'^-pictures. 
Professor  Herkomer's  work  has  less  personal  inspiration. 
Yet  he  has  always  fine  control  over  his  medium  ;  his 
colouring  is  delicate  and  harmonious,  while  his  work  is 
restrained  and  technically  almost  perfect.  "  The  Charter- 
house Chapel  "  is  one  of  his  well-known  subject  scenes. 
It  was  painted  as  an  attempt  to  repeat  the  success  of 
"  The  Chelsea  Chapel,"  but  it  has  not  the  power  of  the 
former  work.  "  Found,"  his  second  picture  in  the  National 
Collection,  is  a  study  of  considerable  interest.  The  con- 
ception has  more  imagination,  although  possibly  the  render- 
ing is  less  technically  strong  than  in  "  The  Charterhouse 
Chapel." 

A  group  of  painters  must  here  be  mentioned  who,  for 
want  of  a  more  fitting  name,  may  be  termed  the  modern 
classicists.  They  tell  their  stories  in  classic  dress  cut  in 
popular  mode.  The  pictures  of  these  pseudo  -  classical 
idealists  are  widely  known.  Frank  Dicksee's  "  Harmony  " 
and  "  The  Two  Crowns,"  Herbert  Draper's  "  Lament  for 
Icarus,"  "The  Alleluia"  of  Gotch,  and  Arthur  Hacker's 
"Annunciation"  need  no  word  of  description. 

Ideal  art  is  supremely  difficult,  and  especially  is  this 
true  to-day.  To  carry  forward  "  the  great  tradition "  is 
given  to  very  few,  and  the  union  of  classicism  and  senti- 
ment does  not  harmonise  with  ideal  achievement. 


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CHAPTER  XVII 

THE   MODERN   SCHOOL  OF  PLEIN  AIR 

PAINTERS 


2  B 


CHAPTER  XVII 


THE   MODERN  SCHOOL  OF  PLEIN  AIR   PAINTERS 


O  the  student  of  recent  painting  no 
characteristic  more  forcibly  separates  the 
old  painters  from  the  new  than  their  way 
of  treating  colour,  when  it  is  transfused 
by  sunlight.  Broadly  speaking,  this  de- 
sire for  colour  united  with  light  may  be 
traced  as  the  inspiration  controlling  the  work  of  every 
modern  painter.  The  love  of  sunlight  that  was  the  primal 
inspiration  of  Turner  and  Constable  has  now  become  the 
heritage  of  the  British  school.  It  is  the  dominant  principle 
by  which  we  may  guide  our  steps  through  the  labyrinth  of 
new  achievement. 

If  you  want  to  understand  the  full  difference  that  this 
ideal  of  colour  plus  light  has  wrought  in  painting,  con- 
trast the  modern  landscapes  with  the  work  of  the  older 
painters.  Look  at  such  pictures  as  Mr.  Arnesby  Brown's 
"Morning"  and  Mr.  Adrian  Stokes'  "Upland  and  Sky," 
with  their  strong  play  of  light ;  or  at  the  poetic  English 
scene,  "Sheep-washing  in  Sussex"  by  J.  Aumonier;  or 
again,  at  the  vigorous  modern  work  of  Hamilton  Macallum ; 

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PICTURES    IN 

or  yet  again  at  "Germinal,"  the  exquisite  water-colour  of 
Lionel  Smythe.  Then  go  and  look  at  the  many  land- 
scapes painted  with  the  old  ideal  of  strong  local  colour. 
In  the  first  group  of  pictures  we  see  light  falling  upon 
the  different  surfaces  and  revealing  colour,  while  in  the 
second  colour,  as  colour,  is  brought  into  everything,  and 
each  tint  is  painted  separately  with  little  regard  to  the 
effect  which  sunlight  has  in  changing  colour. 

The  modern  landscapists  have  given  a  new  harmony 
of  light  to  rustic  scenes.  They  have  filled  them  with  a 
beauty  that  few  before  them  had  been  able  to  find.  They 
show  more  subtlety,  more  fulness,  more  sunlight  than  we 
had  dreamed  of. 

Perhaps  no  picture  in  the  Gallery  so  clearly  mirrors 
this  result  of  clear  light  as  "The  Flower  Girl,"  the  work 
of  J.  J.  Shannon.  The  picture  is  an  impression  of  light. 
A  girl  sits  beneath  a  plane  tree,  her  basket  of  flowers  by 
her  side,  while  she  nurses  her  child.  The  sunbeams 
scintillate  through  the  leaves,  and  fall  upon  her  face,  her 
neck,  and  her  cotton  gown.  Every  colour  is  modulated  by 
the  play  of  the  rays  of  light ;  where  they  rest  there  is 
pure  light,  but  no  colour.  The  tints  are  placed  upon  the 
canvas  in  broad  splashes,  with  a  square  brush.  If  we 
walk  a  little  distance  from  the  picture  every  blotch  of 
colour  will  blend  into  an  impression  of  harmony.  The 
effect  is  one  of  figures  as  seen  in  clear  sunlight. 

It  is  in  this  effort  to  realise  the  truth  and  beauty  of 
both  colour  and  light,  that  we  find  the  essential  power  in 
modern  painting.     It  is  true  that  this  search  for  full  colour 

both  in  light  and  shadow  often  leads  to  extravagance,  and 

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THE   TATE   GALLERY 

many  recent  paintings  are  witness  of  this  fact.  When  a 
mass  of  varied  tints  are  painted  in  a  series  of  vivid  spots, 
the  result  is  often  unrestful  to  the  sight.  Such  an  effect 
may  be  noted  in  "A  Violin  Concerto,"  the  skilful  study 
in  water-colour  by  J.  P.  Gulich.  In  a  work  of  this  char- 
acter the  cleverness  is  perhaps  more  obvious  than  the 
beauty.  But  strife  for  individual  truth  must  inevitably 
result  at  times  in  want  of  harmony.  And  after  all 
colour  is  the  main  thing  in  painting.  No  picture  can 
charm  us  when  the  colour  impression  is  untrue  or  harsh, 
and  if  the  colour  is  beautiful  no  work  can  wholly  dis- 
appoint us. 

Mr.  Sargent's  picture,  "  Carnation,  Lily,  Lily,  Rose,"  is 
a  supreme  example  of  the  subtle  power  of  this  modern 
use  of  colour.  The  picture  is  too  well  known  to  need  de- 
scription, nor  can  its  infinite  charm  be  translated  into  words. 
Fantasy  of  design  joins  hands  with  reality  of  treatment, 
in  a  union  of  rare  and  yet  beautiful  originality.  All  the 
poetry  of  the  picture  is  in  its  colour-scheme,  while  the 
effect  is  one  of  pure  decorative  harmony. 

This  increase  of  originality,  although  a  proof  of  our 
growing  artistic  life,  has  also  a  certain  danger.  In  this 
search  for  individual  interpretation  there  is  a  tendency 
for  our  artistic  expression  to  lose  its  national  character. 
In  many  modern  pictures  we  miss  the  intensity,  the 
dignity,  and  the  sincerity  that  are  the  heritage  of  British 
painting.  Strangeness  is  a  true  factor  in  art,  but  there 
must  be  beauty  also,  and  no  work  of  art  can  be  great 
unless  it  has  the  power  of  charm. 

The   work  of  some   modern    painters   is   marked   by  a 

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PICTURES    IN 

strong  French  accent,  and  this  note  has  clouded  all  that 
is  peculiarly  British  in  expression. 

The  pictures  of  Mr.  Waterhouse  are  examples  of  this 
denationalised  art.  His  compositions  in  the  Tate  Gallery 
are  not  his  finest  achievement.  Many  of  his  conceptions 
have  great  suggestive  beauty,  but  their  manner  of  execution 
is  French  and  not  English.  Mr.  J.  M.  Swan  is  perhaps 
the  painter  who  has  most  entirely  escaped  the  influence 
of  these  necessary  results  of  pioneer  endeavour.  His  ex- 
pression of  art  unites  the  culture  of  the  past  with  the 
original  power  and  vigour  of  to-day.  The  exhaustive 
training  he  imposed  upon  himself  in  Paris  and  elsewhere 
has  done  nothing  to  lessen  his  personality.  During  those 
long  years  of  discipline  he  gained  unusual  power  over  his 
materials.  There  is  no  hint  of  experimenting  in  his  tech- 
nique ;  nothing  is  left  to  chance,  yet  every  detail  is  realised 
so  that  all  effort  is  hidden.  The  cleverness  is  mantled  in 
supreme  mastery.  Mr.  Swan  did  not  begin  to  exhibit 
until  he  was  over  thirty,  and  "The  Prodigal  Son "  is  one 
of  his  early  works.  In  this  picture  the  painter  has  com- 
passed a  supremely  difficult  task — he  has  given  a  new 
poetic  reading  to  a  theme  worn  threadbare.  The  sugges- 
tive thought  behind  the  workmanship  is  perhaps  its  deepest 
charm.  But  the  tender  sensitiveness  of  its  colour-scheme, 
the  unity  of  its  tone,  the  fine  quality  of  the  paint,  and 
the  decorative  rendering  of  the  design  all  unite  to  make 
it  a  work  of  rare  beauty. 

Among  the  disciples  of  light  the  painters  of  the 
Newlyn  school  take  a  prominent  rank.  The  history  of 
this  little  brotherhood  of  artists  has  been  often  told.     Their 

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THE    TATE    GALLERY 

aim  is  to  record  truth,  and  to  paint  light  rather  than 
colour.  In  their  delight  of  craftsmanship  they  have  no 
fear  of  "  the  vice  of  subject "  ;  often  they  paint  anecdotal 
pictures,  but  the  theme  is  chosen  for  its  possibilities  of 
light,  whether  it  is  the  clear  gleam  of  sunlight,  the  grey 
strong  effect  of  a  storm,  or  a  room  lighted  by  its  own 
window,  or  by  the  glow  from  lamp  or  fire. 

The  pictures  of  Mr.  Henry  S.  Tuke  represent  all  that 
is  best  in  the  school.  His  work  has  the  simplicity  and 
reality  which  always  belong  to  the  Newlyn  painters,  and 
with  these  qualities  he  unites  a  poetic  intention,  some- 
times absent  from  their  work.  He  gives  us  his  personal 
impression  of  a  scene  rather  than  an  inventory  of 
events. 

Over  the  details  of  his  life  we  need  not  linger.  He 
studied  in  Italy  and  Paris,  and  for  two  years  he  lived  at 
Newlyn.  In  1885  he  settled  at  Falmouth,  a  seaport  he 
had  loved  from  childhood.  Four  years  later  his  picture, 
"All  Hands  to  the  Pump,"  claimed  an  admiration  which 
has  steadily  increased. 

This  picture  is  included  in  the  National  Collection  as 
well  as  "August  Blue,"  which  was  painted  in  1894.  The 
two  scenes  are  entirely  different,  but  both  reveal  the  same 
strong  workmanship,  both  are  marked  by  the  strong  per- 
sonality of  the  painter's  expression.  The  former  picture 
is  a  scene  of  storm,  rendered  with  dramatic,  yet  un- 
exaggerated  strength.  "  August  Blue  "  is  an  idyllic  summer 
sea,  made  beautiful  with  the  shimmering  light  of  the  sun. 
No  words  can  describe  the  wealth  of  sunlight  that  gleams 
from   the  canvas.     Look   at   the   white   lithe   limbs  of  the 

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PICTURES    IN 

lads,  and  note  the  play  of  the  sun's  rays  as  they  flood 
their  young  bodies  in  light.  Mark  the  contrast  of  their 
flesh  against  the  bright  depths  of  blue.  And  this  note  of 
light  is  repeated  in  the  white  hulls  of  the  vessels  that  sail 
in  the  blue-grey  of  the  distance.  Mr.  R.  M.  A.  Stevenson 
writes  of  the  picture,  "  The  canvas  vibrates  with  blue,  silver, 
gold  and  cream."  It  is  a  scene  of  joyous  life,  absolutely 
full  of  sunlight. 

Mr.  Stanhope  Forbes  and  Mr.  Frank  Bramley  have 
both  given  us  pictures  with  strong  effects  of  light.  I  have 
already  spoken  of  the  beauty  of  Mr.  Bramley's  "  Hopeless 
Dawn."  Much  of  this  charm  arises  from  the  strength  of 
the  scheme  of  lighting,  which  gives  harmony  and  subtle 
quality  to  the  subdued  and  sympathetic  colour. 

Very  different  is  "The  Health  of  the  Bride,"  the  well- 
known  work  of  Mr.  Stanhope  Forbes.  In  this  picture 
the  painter  has  given  us  the  dexterity  of  the  workman 
without  the  intention  of  the  poet.  The  skilful  arrangement 
of  lighting  avoids  the  conflicting  reflections  from  the  two 
windows ;  every  detail  is  perfect,  but  the  outward  form  of 
the  scene  alone  is  pictured.  This  "  realism  of  externals " 
may  arouse  our  interest ;  it  cannot  give  us  true  artistic 
charm. 

This  picture  is  an  illustration  of  one  danger  apparent 
in  modern  painting — the  idea  that  skill  of  craftsmanship 
will  compensate  for  want  of  poetic  intention.  It  is  not 
enough  that  a  painter  is  able  to  observe  externals  truly, 
he  must  also  see  all  he  paints  through  the  poetic  eye  of 
Beauty. 

Among  the  painters  represented  at  Millbank  none  attain 

200 


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THE    TATE    GALLERY 

more  truly  this  union  of  reality  with  poetic  beauty  than 
Professor  Clausen  and  Mr.  La  Thangne.  In  their  work 
we  see  the  overthrow  of  the  old  boundaries  between 
romance  and  realism.  Their  pictures  convey  to  us  their 
personal  impressions  of  truth,  and  by  means  of  their  poetic 
vision  we  obtain  more  perfect  insight. 

Mr.  Clausen's  "The  Girl  at  the  Gate"  is  a  picture 
that  it  is  impossible  to  describe.  In  the  official  catalogue 
of  the  Gallery  we  read :  "  A  girl  stands  at  the  gate  of  a 
cottage  garden,  looking  out  with  an  anxious  face ;  she  wears 
a  blue  cotton  dress  and  white  apron." 

But  this  bare  summary  conveys  no  idea  of  the  rhythm 
of  the  colour,  the  subtlety  of  the  light,  and  the  charm 
of  the  design,  which  unite  in  giving  a  harmony  of 
perfect  beauty.  Only  when  we  gaze  long  upon  the 
work  do  we  realise  its  reserve  and  the  power  of  its 
great  calmness.  Within  its  own  limits  the  picture  attains 
perfection. 

Throughout  the  record  which  these  pages  give  of  the 
pictures  comprised  in  our  National  Collection,  we  have 
seen  that  the  general  trend  of  modern  art  has  been  in  the 
direction  of  original  expression.  Again  and  again  in  the 
work  of  special  masters  we  have  encountered  this  out- 
growth of  the  pre-Raphaelite  revival.  This  key-note  of 
personality  has  now  become  the  common  heritage  of  the 
British  school.  Obsolete  boundaries  have  been  washed 
aside  by  a  springtide  of  individualism.  The  English 
Renaissance  has   indeed   made  painting   new.     A   modern 

20I  2  C 


PICTURES    IN 

craftsman  searches  for  fresh  forms  of  presenting  old  beliefs. 
Each  painter  strives  for  self  expression,  and  at  length 
insight  is  becoming  more  essential  than  sight. 

Compare  the  work  of  the  early  Victorian  painters  with 
the  modern  pictures.  Two  words  will  illustrate  the  dis- 
tinctive aims  which  have  controlled  the  painting  of  these 
works — conformity  was  the  watchword  of  the  past,  while 
freedom  is  the  signal-cry  of  the  new  artistic  creed.  And 
such  a  comparison  of  the  pictures  at  Millbank  is  in  nowise 
complete.  Much  strong  and  original  recent  work  has,  as 
yet,  found  no  recognition  in  our  National  Collection.  Yet 
the  examples  are  manifold,  and  this  fact  has  made  it  ex- 
tremely difficult  to  select  the  pictures  that  illustrate  most 
fully  the  signal  fruitage  of  modern  painting. 

The  spirit  of  restless  inquiry,  born  of  recent  thought, 
with  its  strong  desire  for  reality,  has  resulted  in  a  return 
to  Nature.  British  painters  have  re-discovered  the  truth 
that  natural  objects  are  not  coloured,  but  are  lit  by  sun- 
light. This  was  no  new  knowledge.  Mr.  Clausen  in  his 
Lectures  on  Painting  has  reminded  the  Academy  students 
that  the  beauty  of  shadow  was  taught  by  Leonardo  da 
Vinci.  In  his  treatise  on  painting  the  great  Italian  writes  : 
"What  is  fine  is  not  always  beautiful  or  good.  I  address 
this  to  such  painters  as  are  so  attached  to  the  beauty  of 
colours  that  they  regret  being  obliged  to  give  their  almost 
imperceptible  shadows,  not  considering  the  beautiful  relief, 
which  figures  acquire  by  the  proper  gradation  and  strength 
of  shadow." 

The  same  truth  was  known  to  Turner,  the  great  master 
of  British  landscape.      His   pictures  reveal   no  sacrifice   of 

202 


THE    TATE   GALLERY 

either  light  or  colour.  And  it  is  this  comprehension  of 
the  power  of  light  that  has  made  Velazquez  the  supreme 
impulse  in  modern  art.  Indeed,  Spain  is  the  land  where 
the  seed  was  sown  of  much  of  the  artistic  harvest  we  are 
reaping  to-day. 


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